Al Fredericksson

In view of the fact that by far the most popular page on my website is of photographs of a black swan, I have added a new page with further pictures of the same bird, from the same sighting on the River Trent near Fiskerton in February 2009. You can see them here.

Looking out of the window this afternoon, I noticed a grey bird land in the hedge at the bottom of the garden. It was too big to be a pigeon, and I realised it was a heron. I managed a few photos before it flew off. You can see them here, together withone taken at Gunthorpe in the snow last week.

Over the years, I’ve come across quite a few people who have volunteered, often reluctantly, to play the organ at their church or chapel because there was nobody else to do it, on the basis that they play, or used to play the piano. After the initial shock of discovering that the organ doesn’t have a sustaining pedal, and therefore the sound stops as soon as you remove a finger, and then having worked out which of the stops with weird-sounding names to use, they manage to accompany the hymns quite successfully. Then comes the snag of finding something to play before and after the service, without having to practise for hours on end or becoming a nervous wreck. I recently met another of these brave souls who has volunteered to play at her village church, and I’ve put my mind to producing a few pieces for her to use. You can find links to .pdf files of some of these, together with .mp3 recordings I have made of them here.

Walked by the river yesterday at Burton Joyce, and saw lots of geese, Canada & Greylag on the river. Around sunset, lots more flew in to roost on the fields across the river. Some photographs can be viewed here.

One of our neighbours has a colony of red-tailed bumble bees, which has occupied a birds’ nest box in the garden. The box is fastened to a tree at eye level, so it was quite easy to get close to photograph them. Even just watching for an hour or so, the different kinds of behaviour on show were quite fascinating. The pictures can be seen here.

We went on a very pleasant walk with a group from Burton Joyce on Thursday to see the bluebells in Ploughman Wood, a local Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust reserve. As well as the bluebells, I’ve also added photographs I took on the walk of Greater Stitchwort, Wood Anemones and Yellow Archangel. On the way back, I photographed a very determined blackbird struggling to collect some of last year’s remaining sloes (blackthorn berries) from a very thorny Blackthorn hedge.

After another splendid lunch at the Waggon & Horses at Halam yesterday to celebrate my Mum’s birthday, we were driving along a lane towards Oxton, when we had to pull over to let a car pass in the opposite direction. Just in the field on our left was a hare, which stayed around long enough for me to get some pictures. You can see them here.

The rookery next to the Old Main Road in Bulcote is a hive of activity at the moment, with lots of nest building going on. The ash tree at the bottom of our garden is a favourite source of nesting material for the rooks, which come and break off quite large twigs. I managed to capture a sequence of pictures in the late afternoon sunshine today, showing a rook selecting and breaking off a long twig before flying off with it. The sequence can be viewed here.

Two more pages from last year’s photographs – a woodpigeon trying to bathe in a birdbath intended for smaller birds, and a greenfinch throwing seed from a feeder to the tray below where a young bird was waiting to feed.

Had a great lunch again yesterday at the Waggon & Horses at Halam, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire. The sunshine, and birds chattering away in the hedges by the car park made the day almost like spring – except that the temperature was hardly above freezing! This morning I’ve added new pages from last summer’s holiday in Swaledale – a Greater Spotted Woodpecker and a Spotted Flycatcher.