A walk on the hills

High on the hills at Berryhill Fields there is an excellent view of the cityscape of Stoke-on-Trent. The area is inhabited by skylarks and their cries can be heard as they hover high above their nests and then sink quickly to the ground.
We saw some serious twitchers with high power telescopes on the crest of the hill. They had a full view of the skylarks, but seemed to be waiting for something else.
Having spent an hour or so on Berryhill, we moved to Park Hall Country Park. This is a large area of open heath, woodland, old quarry workings and remnants of wartime air defense guns installations. From the top of the south hill there is a view of Longton and the church stands out clearly in the distance.
A little to the right of the church can be seen the bottle ovens of the Gladstone Pottery, now a museum of potting. This was the last place to fire up a brick bottle kiln. Now all of the potteries are using electric kilns - much cleaner and more controllable.
On the way down the hill we were startled by a sparrow hawk flying directly up the path towards us, not more than 6 metres away when it turned on the wing and flew off. I think it was more startled by our presence than we were by its collision flightpath. It settled in a nearby tree and I was able to take a picture before it flew off.
When I examined the photograph, the bird appears to be a goshawk, with a pale breast and a distinct dark flash around the eye. This is a rare bird in this part of the world. I feel quite privileged to have seen it. Perhaps this is the bird that was eluding the despondent twitchers that we saw on Berryhill Fields?

Back home I have seen the first newt of the year in our pond. They are usually around for the hatching of the tadpoles. If the number of newts is about 2o as it was last year, there will be fare too many tadpoles for them to make a significant impact on this year.

Recovering old photographs

For some years I have been meaning to scan my 35mm negatives to digital format. I have done this for other people, and this year I started on my own old negatives. This one from 2001 is Tom in repose on the bed.
I was not surprised to find that some of the negatives were heavily scratched and one or two strips of negatives from the 1970-80's were starting to decompose and adhere to their wraps. I have so far discarded 5 negatives as unrecoverable.
In the process, I have had a clear out around the office. This has cleared the top of the desktop computer case - a new place for Chloe to snooze whilst we are working.
There are some unusual pictures that have been forgotten over time. This one is with a cat called Smudge, who lived with us at Ashley in 1995. She would go for a walk on a lead. What an odd thing for a cat!
We did not know how old she was at the time. She was a feral stray who was known to have had lots of kittens around Dersingham in Norfolk. She lived with us in Lincolnshire for years. If you failed to feed her on time, she would go and catch her own food and return to the food bowls to eat it.
So far I have scanned about 25 sets of negatives, only a few hundred more to go.

Deer in the forest

The Kings Wood at Stoke is a mixture of ancient forest and tree plantation. It is a very pleasant place to stroll and you can soon get away from the people traps into quiet forest. Today we walked along the upper slopes and I noticed that a number of mature trees had been felled amongst the open forest. Some were more than 200 year old broad leafed species. There is also some wind damage from last week. A few unstable trees have been uprooted and one, all but dead birch, had snapped half way up its trunk.

In the valley drops that fall from the ridge we saw some Fallow deer. They were a group of about 25 hinds and possibly one stag. It did not take them long to notice me on the ridge, but they remained alert and calm. A couple of snaps and then I move on.
We walked around the upper track and down onto the lakeside walk. That bit of the walk is a long way from the lake, but it does pass below the valleys, under the ridge. When we came to the appropriate part of the path, we could see the group of Fallow deer in the distance, through the trees. We were far enough away to cause them no concern. It was then that a dog barked and a couple with a teenage son started shouting after the dog. They had no idea that the deer herd were just 100 metres from them over a ridge in the woods. The deer rapidly moved off, unseen by the noisy family group. Some people do not have the respect necessary in order to be safely let out into the countryside! Grrrrr!

When - oh when?

Following a recent walk to one of our favorite haunts, I saw a section of forest that had been felled. The forest was a crop plantation and it had been mature enough to cut for paper pulping for some years. I was curious to know when the trees were planted so I took a photograph of a cut stump.
The count of rings put the date of the sapling to 1955, probably a year or two earlier than this for the initial seedling. Those trees were as old as me!

The usual process of planting requires the land to be fallow for a few years before a new crop of tree saplings are planted out. I wonder if I will see the next harvest of this forest patch?

I have been tagged

I have just been tagged by Rosie. This is a simple process of giving 4 responses to a set of questions, so here goes:-

4 films I'd watch again:- Gosford Park, Un long dimanche de fiançailles, Star Wars, Manon des Sources. I have a wide taste in films and there are a lot of films I could watch again. I like films such as Crocodile Dundee and Star trek for their innocent social context and sillyness.

4 places I've lived:- Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, London. My next hope would be to live in Derbyshire.

4 TV shows I watch:- Doctor Who, Horizon, Harry Hill’s TV Burp and The Local News.

4 Places I've been:- Wildenrath, Newton, Binbrooke, St. Athan. OK! Whats the connection here?

4 people I e-mail:- Me (a good way of transferring data between distant computers), Pterosaur enthusiasts generally, Jean and Martin. Not much meaning there!

4 things to eat:- Home made bread, Home made Pizza, Home made Lasagne, Rosies apricot slices.

4 places I'd rather be:- At my own computer, Sat on top of a hill with a view and the one I love, Behind the camera, In the middle of a collection of fossil bones or stone age tools.

Solutrian Laurel Point - Upper Palaeolithic

4 people to Tag:- This is not a compulsory part of the tag, and the blogs I read are very specific, tagging is not appropriate. If you want to have a go, you are tagged.

Carrot for lunch

This week, Rosie and I were invigilating in the Kings Hall, Stoke. I used to invigilate at this venue until 2000, when the college changed its exam venue, and I had forgotten how intricate a building this hall is. The acoustics are reasonable and the lighting from the chandeliers is excellent. However, the hall is as cool as I remember, the students needed to wear coats at the start of the exams.

Yesterday, I made carrot soup. Today, after a brisk shopping spree we came home and warmed up half of the soup. It was a treat on such a glum day.

The recipe is simple. Dice an onion and fry it in oil for 5 minutes until soft. Dice 6 carrots (800g) and add to the onion. Sweat for about 10 minutes. Add (at least) 1 litre of water (or stock), freshly grated nutmeg, chopped coriander, a little paprika, the juice of an orange and a little orange zest. Boil, then simmer for 40 minutes. Cool, then liquidize very thoroughly. Warm to serve.
It goes well with home made bread and a glass of lemon cordial. The rest of the soup should keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days (it won't last any longer with my love of good food!)

Over the top at Consall

Consall Forge Nature Reserve is one of our local natural habitats. Much of the site is primordial forest and largely undisturbed woodland. The area near the toilets and visitor centre is a picnic area and there are good pathways giving access the low lying forest area and the fishing ponds (which are well managed). A slight detour along a small and insignificant pathway leads to the upper forested areas where the general public seldom venture. This is the domain of the locals and walking enthusiasts, and there is a clear absence of litter and human disturbance up there.
Walking in the woodlands we observed lots of birds actively marking territory and seeking mates. We saw the ubiquitous tits and chaffinches, hawks and dunnock, and in the lower regions, mallard and nuthatch. All of the time we could hear the call of pheasant, but did not see anything of them. This became the chalange of the day - to find and photograph a pheasant.
Got one! A fine specimen of a cock pheasant.

It is Rosie's anniversary today - 3 years of blogging - well done!

Neanderthal

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis was a prehistoric man with a large brain capacity and a stocky body that allowed survival in cold climates at the edge of the ice sheets during the last Ice Age. I have just rediscovered my skull replicas and Neanderthal tool kits during a recent sort out in my shed. (OK! for the purist the picture is of a rhodesiensis skull.)

Some years ago I made a set of Mousterian hand axes. Mousterian technology is the tool culture of Neanderthal Man. I had forgotten how cleverly constructed these tools were. Neanderthals made composite tools, like spears with stone points and hand axes with mastic pads on the butt end.
These two hand axes are an example of that technology. The one on the left is what you would expect to find in a museum. The one on the right is what a Neanderthal would have used. The mastic is made from a warm mixture of fine silt and tree resin and set in cold water.
Neanderthals were big game hunters and they would work in teams to spear large animals. The hand axe was a killing weapon to administer the fatal blow.
These hand axes need a powerful technique with a soft hammer (bar of bone or antler) and this leaves the tool sharp all of the way around. It is essential to pad the butt to prevent cutting your hand during use. Neanderthal axes show adhesions of such mastic around the butt, which breaks down over time, leaving just a slight trace. I love prehistoric stuff!

Out for a country walk

Today we set out to go to one of the garden centres on the edge of the city. Typically, I let my mind wander from purpose and we ended up on the wrong road out of town. OK! lets go and have a walk in the countryside first.

Greenway is a country park to the north of Stoke, with forest, water and good fishing. It is a wildlife haven, with waterfowl, perching birds and squirrels in abundance.
Whenever I go to such places I seem to end up taking pictures of birds. This blackbird followed us along a wall, but at a discrete distance.

The nuthatch was one of a pair, posing for a picture amongst the branches of a nearby tree.

There seem to have been a large number of robins this year, A group of about 6 or 7 individuals were flitting amongst the trees, challenging each other to establish their places in the local pecking order.

A sparrowhawk flew past, gliding just long enough for me to level the camera and take this snap, then it was gone. If you look carefully at the photograph, you can see the bird is carrying a vole (short tail) in its talons, turned head into the wind to streamline the flight. Judging by the length of its flight, past several good perching trees, this hawk must be feeding young already.

By far the best display was put on by the great crested grebes. They were puffing their neck ruffs and shaking their heads at each other. The display does not last long, but it can be noisy and very active. There are several pairs on the lake this year.

The local blue tits and great tits were following us around the paths and woodland, pausing on branches to observe what we were doing. At one point we came across a squirrel, sat watching us on a wall. It ran towards us and seemed exceptionally brave for a wild animal. Rosie put out her hand and it came to her. I am sure that if she had a nut in her hand, the squirrel would have taken it.

I love time spent in the open like this. We went on to the garden centre and saw the sika deer in the fields. There was a big log fire in the centre of the cafe and a hot coffee to enjoy whilst reflection upon the events of the morning.

I have found my beak burin

Some time ago, I was working with my stone tool collection and I found that a beak burin had gone missing. It must have been put somewhere safe. Today I have located the little tool. It was lurking in a box at the back of the garden shed.

This tool is from the Creswellian culture, dating from the last Ice Age, about 23,000 years ago. It was found in a field site not far from Creswell Crags many years ago. At 4cm long, this little flint tool was used to slice antler and bone by gouging furrows into the bone until a strip could be detached.The reindeer antler below has been prepared using a similar reproduction burin. A strip of antler is in the process of being extracted for the manufacture of an awl.
The harpoon point below was made from ox bone obtained from a local butcher. A dihedral burin was used to strip out a working blank from the bone. The finish cut was done using flint blades and flint saws.
The platted rope is of hemp and is used to attach the harpoon point to a wooden shaft. The point is designed to detach from the shaft on impact, but remain secured by the cord. This ensured that the bone harpoon point does not break when embedded into the prey.

It's good to have the beak burin back in the collection box with my other ancient treasures.

Frogs a Pleanty

Rana temporaria (the common Frog) is britains best known amphibian. The spawning frenzy in our pond this morning was a joy to observe. I counted more than 30 frogs at one time, but the count was difficult due to the movement and the fact that individual frogs were submerged for part of the time. There could well have been more frogs. I also observed a pair of toads.

Spawn Time

The wind is howling around the house this morning. It was a raging gale last night, with the telephone cable howling in the wind. It is a redundant cable anyway, our connection is underground now.

There was such a bang on the roof last night, I was convinced that we had lost a block of roof tiles. This morning, the roof is fine, Rosie had seen what looked like guttering on the garden. I found three plastic covers and could not work out where the had come from. It turned out to be the trim from our neighbours roof. Must have peeled off and bounced across our roof in the night. What a relief! Garry had lost 4 covers and we could not find the other one anywhere. With the strength of the wing, its probably in Uttoxeter by now.

I went out to inspect the garden for damage. Fortunately I had staked all of the vulnerable trees in the Autumn, so all seemed well. It was then that I noticed the frogs were spawning in the pond. So far I noticed about 14 clumps of spawn, so there must have been a good number of adult frogs around in the night. I saw 5 individual frogs, two of whom I recognised as resident animals from the markings on their backs.

It is good to know that the local frogs survived the winter. We had a very warm end to January and there were a couple of frogs active at that time. This was followed by a sharp frost and on one day the pond had frozen to a depth of 3cm. I had found one dead frog, "hoppy" who had one hind leg. He had been an adult in the pond for at least 2 years with a leg missing. I was unsure of whether the injury was due to a fox or a heron. Sad to lose him after all this time, but he was very big and probably quite old for a frog.
I am sure that the newts will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of thousands of tiny tadpoles. Last year we extracted two small tanks of tadpoles and this resulted in several new young frogs surviving.