Saturday 19th. January 2013

Well , with Blogger still not allowing me to upload photos via IE , I was very grateful to fellow wildlife enthusiast , blogger and computer wiz Martin , who offered his expertise to try and solve the problem . So yesterday morning , with a snow storm outside , we set about trying to get Firefox to work , thus enabling , hopefully , to upload the photos . Much clicking and some swearing later , I was in a way pleased that Martin was also unable to get Firefox to work , thus meaning it was not a wasted journey for him , and I didn't look a 'right plonker' , but even more pleased when he managed to get Chrome installed and working . By the time Martin was finished , I had seen windows that I never knew existed come up on screen , and never likely to find again either , but it did mean that I had an alternative to IE , and can now hopefully catch up on some photos .

Starting with the Winter Heliotrope / Petasites fragrans , a member of the Daisy family , and related to Butterbur / P.hybridus , mentioned in the last post , the first flowers of the year .

The furled leaves pushing through of Lords and Ladies / Arum maculatum , from the same post ,

and the seeds of Stinking Iris / Iris foetidissima , taken on one of two trips to get better shots of the Hawfinches at Barming , in which I failed .
The rest of the week was quiet , apart from trying to photograph the juvenile Common Buzzard which has been hanging around one of the horse fields off the bottom lane . The bird is very wary

and always keeps a distance , which did not make things easy in the poor light conditions . It spends much of it's time perched on the electric fence posts , searching for any movement on the ground ,

then swooping down to take what seemed to be earthworms most of the time , before flying back to it's perch , often quite happy to bully other species out of the way to get food . I looked in on it both to and from the re-arranged to Wednesday workday up on the Common , but at both ends of the day the light was at it's worst . That did mean that I was able to spend some time on Thursday , when the light was better . But the better light meant that it could see me better , and with just the laneside hedge for cover , it was difficult to get close , and when I did , it flew off into the high trees beyond

the field . But , with a bit of patience , I managed to get a few reasonable shots before the sun dropped and with it the light . Whilst the light was good , I tried for some flight shots , but , with the

short , low flights that the bird was making , the AF was struggling to work properly against the background . Just a shame the high trees were behind the bird , as , when it did fly off at more height ,

all I had was a back-end shot . On my visits there have been good numbers of Mistle Thrush present , they being almost as wary as the Buzzard . Plenty of Blackbirds , a few Redwings which were good to see , a pair of Kestrels made a short visit , and a good mix of Corvids , turning over the horse dropping for their food , and giving grief to the Buzzard when it strayed too close to them . Other

wildlife seen on my visits included two Roe Deer that joined a small flock of Pheasants at the
very edge of the field and the wood behind , on my last visit before the snow , and just to the right of

where they appeared , a very red Fox ambled into the sun on the woodland edge and made the most of it , eventually curling up for a snooze . With the Buzzard out of sight for quite some time , I headed off home before the temperature dropped too low , stopping at the rookery , where no doubt

residential rows will  break out , but , at the moment , everything seemed very civilised .

I've just checked and IE still isn't allowing picture uploads , but also noticed what I thought at first was 'divine  intervention' to solve my problem , a comment on my last posting from 'Brother Gerry' . But it proved not to be 'the hand of God' , but some helpful information from my brother Gerry , down in the Brighton area . Thanks very much for that Gerry , I'll keep that for the next time things go wrong , as I'm sure they will .