[England 2014] Messingham Pt II

[moonvoice]

We ended up in Messingham, isolated from public transport or even safe walkways
because of family, but it ended up being a great place to stay.
Because we were in a golf-course log cabin,
I would get up every morning and watch the birds around the place.
I found Messingham difficult, but the skies were kindest to me here.















I could never get over just how many contrails there were in the sky (streak clouds left by airplanes), especially knowing that they significantly contribute to climate change. In Perth, even if you're a skywatcher like me, contrails are rarely seen. In England, conditions permitting, I would sometimes see 20-30 in the sky at once, dispersing into faint cirrus, causing the very greenhouse effect that my cloud books warn about as a result of contrails. I still found them pretty though when they were lit up.





















This is Hattie, she was at a local produce cafe. I had the best cheesecake I've ever had in my life at this cafe. In. My. Life.

































Also we went to see the Humber Bridge





But I was more interested in the mudflats.





By the way we actually had a TON of blue sky in the weeks of January we were in England. No snow, a little bit of rain (not much), one incidence of hail and like...that was it. Great for tourism, but I was kind of hoping to be able to see snow for the first time. Ah well, hopefully that'll be an excuse to travel to cold places once more.

Comments

[wendelah1]

Your photographs are so good. The compositions are very striking.

[moonvoice]

Thank you. I've had a rough year, and photography is still one of the things I find joy in. :)

[silverjackal]

We have European starlings here too -- they are introduced invasives -- and I always think their winter/nonbreeding plumage is more attractive than that of summer. And the rooks! How did you like the British birdlife?

[moonvoice]

They actually have invasive starlings in um...Melbourne, Australia too I'm pretty sure. But in England there weren't actually that many that we saw. We saw far more rooks and jackdaws and such - but it could have been the season.

The birdlife was great, but limited I think because it was the height of winter and they have a lot more migratory birds (vs. Western Australia, which is Mediterranean and also isolated, and so we really don't see any large scale migrations in quite the same way) - so it was rooks, crows, jackdaws (a huge corvid spectrum actually), gulls, a fantail here and there.

Oh! But there were a LOT of pheasants in the fields in like...bright breeding plumage. Now that was an amazing treat. I've never seen a wild pheasant, let alone so many in breeding plumage. I loved them!

[silverjackal]

Starlings also tend to like denser brush or scrub so there would be fewer of them if it was more open. We also have enormous migrations here -- in fact I live under a major migration route (which follows the terrain). At the right time one can see birds in the hundreds or even thousands depending on the species, and then at other times it just drops back to the summer/winter residents, of which there are comparatively fewer.

Pheasants are indeed beautiful. We have a smattering of naturalized and released Ring-necked Pheasants (which is what you would have also seen in England I suspect, whether or not they are the Mongolian subtype we have) here, and the males in particular are idiots when they are breeding. Displaying on the posts in the highway median, for example. Heh. They are also tasty, though. :D

[moonvoice]

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what kind I was seeing (there was one that was very common, and then I saw a silver one once as well).

I actually had a pheasant / rabbit / pigeon pie while I was over there. It was a bit heavy handed (I feel like the density of flavour could have been balanced a bit better), but I don't really get the opportunity to have pigeon or pheasant here! The game itself I liked, I just think it could have been showcased a little better? Maybe having game like rabbit and kangaroo here has spoiled me a little though.

[silverjackal]

I'm not sure exactly what kind I was seeing

The "Common" Pheasant all over Europe (and the U.K.) tends to be a hybrid of 30-something subspecies and so vary widely depending on what went into the mix. I can easily pick the clear extremes by the differences in the male plumage, but the "average" ones are fairly indistinct, so "Common pheasant" it is. (Like the official LBB and LBD designations, for "Little Brown Bird" and "Little Brown Duck", when the observer can't work out what species was sighted.) We have the Mongolian subtype here, likely because of climate. Silver pheasants are also beautiful, but they (and the Golden pheasants) are only kept as pets or in zoological collections here.

Squab can be very bitter if it's not a young bird or if its' overcooked, so perhaps that's what accounted for your less than stellar gastronomic experience. Then again, traditional British cooking tends to be on the heavy and bland side, so... ;D

[calissa]

Gorgeous photos! Those shots of the clouds are amazing! And Hattie looks gorgeous.

Thank you for sharing these. It has been such a treat seeing the shots from your trip.

[moonvoice]

Hattie was great. I think she was a bit tired of constant visitors but she did like an excuse for a carrot!

[kehleyr]

Really pretty photos.

[moonvoice]

Thank you! :)

[lupagreenwolf]

Off topic--congrats on your Tin Duck!

[moonvoice]

Ah thank you! It was so unexpected! I didn't even know I was nominated!

[lupagreenwolf]

For all the crap that the world tends to throw at us, sometimes we get the pleasant surprises too :)