Down in the lambing sheds.

I witnessed a birth today. A tiny lamb, yellow and frail popped into the world at the lambing sheds at Lackham College, 

At this time of year, around where I live, the fields are full of new sheep. They don't stay frail and yellow for long. Soon they are bounding around the fields, chasing their mums for milk, suckling with their tails wagging and then, as the weeks pass, they become increasing independent and little gangs seem to develop. They charge around together bouncing as if on springs and sometimes butting heads.


Here as part of my celebration of Spring are some pictures of the newborns.

I am well aware that there are significant ethical issues that relate to the welfare and fate of livestock and if you would like to know more, I recommend Compassion in World Farming to you and the Humane Society.

There were some other youngsters there too:

But mainly its about the lambs!

Who is peering in through my window?

I am delighted to report the return of 'my' badgers. Readers may recall that they disappeared last autumn after being consistent visitors to my small garden through the summer and I mourned them, worried that they might have been killed.

Well,to be honest I cannot prove they are the same animals but two came visiting last night and I managed this candid shot.

Hopefully they will stay around and I will get some better images. I am overjoyed by the return of these lovely wild animals.

Also - just to prove that Spring has reached the UK: here is a photo from the banks of the River Avon in the middle of Bath city and another showing a cormorant (one of a pair) roosting high-up nearby.

Are your lamp posts feeling chilly?

If so, why not knit them a lovely woolly coat and little hat like these lucky little lamp posts seen at the American Museum in Bath at the weekend:

And another!

One lucky little lamp post

Of course rather than being a kindness to lamp posts this may actually relate to the exhibition of work  by world renowned knitwear designed Kaffe Fassett being shown at the museum. Which would also help explain this tree: 

Anchorage Revisted

Someone told me my images from Anchorage made it look bleak.

The 'American Eagle' - an adult bald eagle.  

So, I have gone back into my picture archives from seven years ago when I was there for much of May and here are some images of the wildlife and landscapes from them. This is a beautiful and wildlife-rich part of the world.

Juvenile bald eagle

Prince William Sound

Did not get to see the belugas and slightly worried by the bullet holes here

But here is a distant whale...

...a humpback whale

and another - an orca

What's this waving from the water?

Sea otters

a black bear

A moose (in a reserve)

The Cook Inlet in Spring 2007

Up in the frozen north

Captain Cook looks across the Cook Inlet

I am briefly visiting Anchorage in Alaska.

The only wildlife that I can see in the city which has a light covering of snow and a temperature hovering just below freezing are some ravens, and they surprise me because instead of just making the characteristic low monotone 'gronking calls I am used to back home, here they also sing. They are babbling happily up in the trees and also from on high on the street lights.

The adjacent Cook Inlet is mainly frozen, but the locals say that this has been an unusually  warm winter and the small flurries of snow that I can see blowing dryly around the streets are almost the only snow that they have had.

The big local news is that the big Iditarod dog-sled race is suffering from the lack of snow, the course is unusually dangerous and participants are getting hurt.

Another local news story also features a canine in the snow and is the story of a Otis Orth whose snow machine overturned leaving him injured, alone and immobilized . He was forced to stay where he was all through the freezing night but his faithful golden retriever, Archer, stayed with him and they huddled together for warmth. Come the morning, the dog heard passersby and was able to bring help and his master is now recovering in hospital. Full story in he Anchorage News HERE.  

Raven in the snow

Raven on the streetlight - note the characteristic beard

Part of the industrialized shoreline of Anchorage - the adjacent sea is open but then there is ice out to the horizon