wildlife

Oh, Deer

Click on any of the pictures below to enlarge them.

The trip described in the last couple of posts was taken about a month ago – we were going to be walking along St Cuthbert’s Way in Northumberland, from Wooler to Holy Island/Lindisfarne. From the Berwick-upon-Tweed train station we were taken by taxi to our first night’s resting place in Wooler. After checking in, we took a walk around town. (Click any of the images below to see them enlarged.)

Parakeets

After the Serpentine Galleries we walked back through Hyde Park to the Lancaster Gate tube station, not too far from where I lived in Bayswater in the ’80s. We were stunned to see a lot of parakeets fluttering around until one of our Indian classmates explained to us that they had arrived here some years ago, escaping the homes of Indians in England who had brought them from someplace in India where they’re common.

Wax Wings

Bohemian wax wings were spotted in Farnham for the first time in a long time. I was not out to photograph birds, but my wife was ready to spot birds with her binoculars and, seeing my camera, friendly people naturally directed me to the library garden where they could be seen.

A few weeks ago we took the train to Guildford and then walked the Riverside Nature Reserve along the River Wey Navigation. (click any of the pictures below to see them full size.)

Badger

A dead badger by the side of the road. It remained there for at least a week with very little sign of disturbance and then, one day, it wasn’t there.

ReVoltairean Concept

Continuing my walk along the South Bank after seeing the Sugimoto exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, I came again to the Tate Modern with, for some reason, this quotation from the end of Voltaire’s Candide struck in lights on a frame at the back of a lawn where pigeons flatly rested. Uncanny.