Far From the Madding Crowd

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Sunny Posts

Lovely sunny day today, we went to Studland beach for a walk. We saw a Painted Lady butterfly, could not get a picture of it, I think it was probably in a hurry to move on to warmer climes. This Common Darter was very obliging, I was able to take close up pictures of it at different angles while he was sunning himself on the post.

Thursday, 23 October 2014

Fungi at Arne

Went for a walk at the RSPB nature reserve, Arne, hoping to see some Spoonbills. We did see four but too far away to get a decent picture of them. This year, Poole Harbour has 49 Spoonbills, the most ever seen in the UK. Well, at least these fungi were easy enough to photograph, they don't move around, don't get blown around in the wind either :-)

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Portland Bill

Last week we took a trip to Portland Bill hoping to see Little Owls which we did not find but manage to get a picture of a Wheatear, my best picture of this bird so far and saw a Seal.

My Blog

I have taken the title of my blog from Thomas Hardy's fourth novel 'Far From the Madding Crowd' which he wrote in 1874. He took his title from Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard' completed in 1750. Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset where he lived for most of his life and where he based the stories in his novels. The word 'madding' means frenzied and there is a sense of freedom I get being out in the countryside and being close to nature away from the frenzied atmosphere of the towns and cities. I live in Dorset and like Thomas Hardy, it is where I have lived for most of my life, my blog is mostly about nature in Dorset. I am a member of the Dorset Wildlife Trust. I will include my garden and anything of interest about the natural world in Britain.