Sunday
Had a nice walk along the towpath of Cromford Canal yesterday. It's been years since I've been to Cromford (actually, since I was at school and did a history project on Richard Arkwight who built a cotton mill there - it was apparently a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution), and I've never actually been to the canal.
It's rather pretty. Too many peple there for me, lots of young families and dogs and the kind of walkers who don't say hello to you. Not that I mind people per se, just that it's hard to see many birds when there are noisy kids running about!
But there were some nice birds. The usual mallards and moorhens, plus a lovely pair of little grebes which were very close (they look like powder puffs!) robins, wood pigeons, a wren, blackbirds and the like. Three year ticks - song thrush, little grebe, nuthatch. And I ws thrilled to watch a beautiful and tiny goldcrest (a life tick!) fluttering about for ages, very close. Michael tried really hard to get a pic of it, but the light was bad and they move damned fast and don't stay still for a second. They aren't Europe's smallest bird for nothing, I was amazed that a bird could actually be that small!!
It was nice to go out, even if it was a bit cold. But last night and today my back is playing up - it's not painful exactly, but uncomfortable and niggly and I know if I push it I'll end up in actual pain. So I've missed uni again. :(
It's rather pretty. Too many peple there for me, lots of young families and dogs and the kind of walkers who don't say hello to you. Not that I mind people per se, just that it's hard to see many birds when there are noisy kids running about!
But there were some nice birds. The usual mallards and moorhens, plus a lovely pair of little grebes which were very close (they look like powder puffs!) robins, wood pigeons, a wren, blackbirds and the like. Three year ticks - song thrush, little grebe, nuthatch. And I ws thrilled to watch a beautiful and tiny goldcrest (a life tick!) fluttering about for ages, very close. Michael tried really hard to get a pic of it, but the light was bad and they move damned fast and don't stay still for a second. They aren't Europe's smallest bird for nothing, I was amazed that a bird could actually be that small!!
It was nice to go out, even if it was a bit cold. But last night and today my back is playing up - it's not painful exactly, but uncomfortable and niggly and I know if I push it I'll end up in actual pain. So I've missed uni again. :(