Saturday 16 March 2024

Bird Spotting

The local Magpies have learned to use the fat-ball feeders. Now the squirrels have competition.

These Herring Gulls were seen at Westport Lake in the city.  They have been a common bird on this lake for some years now.
The Little Grebes (Dabchicks) are arriving and this is my first sighting this year.

I am always pleased to see s Song Thrush.  This one was one of a pair, hunting for worms and bugs on the Canal-side at Longport.

Now that the weather is warming, we are starting to see different bird activity in the UK. It will not be long before all of the Spring migrant species are around again.

Thursday 14 March 2024

SuperZoom

 I have just received delivery of a used Tamron 150-600mm lens with a Nikon F mount fitting.  I have not owned a lens with this range before and have not had this magnifying power since the 1970's


This lens is on my Nikon D5000 camera and it replaces my Nikkor 33-300mm lens for the time being. The weight of the lens will need the camera shoulder strap removing and  I will eventually get a shoulder harness for the lens.

This is one of my test images.  It is of the island on Trentham Lake, showing 2 Canada Geese.  My 300mm lens would have captured almost half of the island.  Notice the Beaver gnawed tree to the left of the geese.

The original image is too large to load to the blog, but this cut-out and reduced section just about shows the beaver tooth marks in the wood.

I seldom manage to taker a good picture of a crow. This one worked out OK.

Nice lens!


Saturday 2 March 2024

Potholes


 This is our local pot hole. It sits in the middle of the road next to the entrance to our street and has been there since last year.  It is now an old friend and all of the local drivers take care to drive around it.  If a small car tyre goes into this pothole, the axle will hit the road surface.

Yesterday when I was driving around in the rain, the potholes on the local roads were full of water.  I realised that I knew the location of all of them and was able to take evasive action to avoid any issues or damage to our car.

Despite the funds that drivers pay to the revenue in petrol duty, road tax and VAT, it seems that the lack of funding for basic maintenance is now a serious national issue rather than an irritation. Poor road surfaces are the norm.

It seems that the government has been running its services down and roads are not an issue worthy of concern.  This pothole cannot be due to heavy vehicle damage as  there are no HGV transits on this road and all buses to this area were cancelled some years ago.  The largest vehicles we see down here area the dustbin wagons and they are travelling very slowly.

Perhaps a change of government will help fix the problems on our roads?

Footnote 8 Mar 2024:

The pothole has now been repaired with a rough patch of tarmac.

Friday 9 February 2024

Carboniferous Monsters

 Today we went to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery to see the travelling exhibition "Carboniferous Monsters" which is on from 3 Feb to 2 June 2024.

The exhibit is a "pay per visit" one and shows some very fine examples of the top predators from this era.  In my opinion, an exceptional treat to anyone who is interested in these fossils.

I have not seen so many fossil objects from this era in one place,  many of the larger exhibits are replica casts of the originals and they are mounted authentically.

Dracopristis is a ctenocanth spined shark from New Mexico.  These sharks were about 6 foot long with 12 rows of short teeth, suitable for crushing its prey. This is a very complete fossil of this creature, which is mostly known from fragmentary remains.

Actinodon is classified as a Temnospondyli amphibian and is about 6 inches long.  This fossil was found in France in 1866. It has a typically wide and flat skull structure.

One of the larger Amphibious specimens is Pholiderpeton which is known to have grown to 15 feet long. Its Latin name translates as "Horny scaled creeping thing".  This was a top predator of the time and the fossil was found in Bradford, Yorkshire.

 Sphenocodon is a synapsid which is predominantly Permian in age, but is found in the Late Carboniferous era. It is closely related to the sail-backed synapsid Dimetrodon. The fossils are found throughout New Mexico and Western Texas. This is a rare chance to see 3 slightly different skulls from this top predator. For me, this was the unexpected highlight of the visit.

Link




Monday 5 February 2024

The Crown

 I have a few crowns on my teeth and the first was fitted in the late 1980's by my dentist in  Spalding, Lincolnshire - about 35 years ago. It detached from the tooth base yesterday and I now have an appointment with my new dentist in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, tomorrow.  I am hoping that it can be re-attached without any fuss.

This crown has taken a battering in all of that time. The tooth that was opposed to this was removed last year.  The one thing I did notice is that the fabric of the crown has been worn down to the adhesive on the lingual (lip side) surface. I hope this is not a problem.....!

 

P.S. The crown is too badly worn to refit.  I now have an appointment for the prep and fitting of a new zirconian white crown.  That will be fun. I have put the gold crown in my fossil cabinet.


Sunday 4 February 2024

The wind it bloweth every day

Just thought it would be fun to post a few red squirrel photos in the wind.



https://www.peakwildlifepark.co.uk/

Of course the main attraction at the moment is the Polar Bears.

 



Saturday 20 January 2024

Piper Cubs

Today I have put the finishing touches to my simulated X-Plane airport model for Elvington Aerodrome and the Yorkshire Air Museum.
Just for fun I set up a simulation with 2 Piper Cub aircraft to fly together on a cross country run.
I am flying the Super Cub in the follow on position.  It is always a demanding way to fly as you have to match your aircraft performance to that of the leader.
The other skill is to maintain the direction, altitude and separation as well as a visual contact to avoid risk of collision. If visual contact is lost, radio contact is essential to agree a roll out strategy to avoid collision.
A change of formation is required as we approach our destination.  That allows for  the circuit approach, crosswind turn and final approach so that visual contact can be maintained in circuit to land.  That was fun!