COOT AND CROW. (25/09/14)

Today has been pleasant enough but windy and overcast. I have been out three times but have not seen anything particularly interesting nor close enough to make a study of.

This is a picture of the Herons but taken with the macro lens yesterday.  There are five of them not six as I thought. I have never seen them in anything but single units so it was a surprise to see so many together.

  I rounded the dogs up and put them on the lead, we then kept very quiet and crept through the reeds. I don’t know why when the little mere came into sight it was empty.

     After ten minutes this Coot emerged from the reed bed.

     Then another appeared and chased it away. Coots are aggressive little birds but do have wonderful feet. I wandered over the bank to the river Tees. No Otters and no Seals, both can be seen here as there is a fish ladder up the barrage which makes for a handy food trap.

After breakfast I went down to the big Asda on Portrack Lane. They had a good selection of fresh fish on offer so I’m having fish pie with mushrooms and a couple of chillies; I pushed the boat out and made a cream sauce for it to cook in. I’m looking forward to supper. In Spain they sell cardboard cartons of natta de cocina, cooking cream, it’s a bit like Elmlee cream here but much better. I used normal double cream. I’ll top the potato off with my oldest cheese, I think it is that hard Swiss stuff that you can scrape with a potato peeler and make little flower shapes. I noticed it going a bit crumbly yesterday. It’ll be fine after a blast in the oven.

I had a sandwich around two o’clock and decided to give the Reserve one more go. Lots of Dragonflies and big ones. They were flying high and not settling. They were either Common Hawkers or more likely Emperors. Big blue jobs from what I glimpsed. I’ll have a serious go at them tomorrow. 

   A Crow, it was making a very funny purring noise. I suspect that the repulsive, smug, excuse for a prime minister of ours had phoned it. He is a disgusting misogynist. I am no royalist but have more respect for the queen than Dithery. If I were her I’d pop him in the Tower for a week or so. Shave his head and tattoo ‘Pompous Twit.’  on his forehead and ‘Witless.’ over his pate. He is braver than I gave him credit for. There have been times when I would have loved to be a missoghamist. I got hit and it nipped such dreams in the bud.

Unless I score with the Dragonflies early tomorrow I won’t post as I’m going a walk on Redcar beach to take pictures of the reflected sunset with a lass who is so posh she has her hair done in a hairdressers and has been known to have two showers on the same day. Don’t panic, she shops in George and Oxfam, I’ll check, she looks as if she does. She is relatively normal.

Have a great weekend.