30 Days Wild - Days 14-16

  Well doing the right blog on the right day didn't last long lol so back to a triple header to once again catch up.

Day 14     Off Their Trolleys

  Apologies to begin with but this isn't a scenic blogpost for Day 14 but a pretty awful sight caused by Humans with no respect for the planet we live on.
  At high tide in Newry the River is full and looks like any other , but at low tide when the mud banks are exposed the river shows itself to be a scrap mans dream(if he could get to them).

  In this one 100m section of the River Newry running along Kilmorey Street I counted 52 trolleys, with more parts barely showing out of the mud :( Not surprisingly there is no trolley park there are more(probably because they ran out of trolleys) but the effects are still there affecting the river and its wildlife.
  I have contacted Newry and Mourne Council both by email and Twitter but have had no response so I guess the trolleys are there to stay.They would probably say it's too expensive to remove them.

  Maybe we should have to pay £5 for the use of a shopping trolley to make sure it is returned to the store and not have it dumped in a river by a moron.

  Please look after our environment, our future generations need it to survive.


Day 15     Birding in Westeros ;)

  If the title of this section confuses you then I guess you do not watch HBO's most popular ever TV series "Game Of Thrones" :) We actually spent the day in County Down, Northern Ireland along Strangford Lough starting with a morning visit to WWT Castle Espie.

  Like most of the Wetland Trust reserves there are 2 parts to it, the Nature reserve with hides for "wild" birding and the captive waterfowl area where you can get close up to Ducks and Geese from around the world.
  Feeding the hordes.
  Red Breasted Goose.

  African Combed Duck, Ross's Goose, Pochards & Mallards.

  My fiance Majella feeding a Baikal Teal.

  Some of the other waterfowl at WWT Castle Espie.
  Wood Duck

  Eider

  Baikal Teal

  Lots of wild Mallards

  Red Breasted Goose

  Barrows Goldeneye

  After the feeding frenzy we headed to the hide overlooking Strangford Lough.

  The tide was out so not much about besides the Black-headed Gulls, Oystercatchers and a couple of Black-tailed Godwits.

  I then noticed this nest on the hide.

  It's occupants were a Wren family, with the parents catching insects and returning to feed the brood.

  Ox-eye Daisies

  A newly emerged Ladybird on a fence post.

  A return to the visitor centre/cafe to feed ourselves and then it was time to head South along the Strangford Lough shoreline to "Westeros"

  Westeros, the main land mass in Game Of Thrones, to us was actually Castle Ward.Heading to the farmyard aka Winterfell.

  Winterfell

  A few extra bits were added for the filming.

                                   

  Around the Castle Ward grounds there were more locations used in the series.

  Three women were hung from this tree by men in the tv show.

  There were plenty of Bullfinches in the grounds and this Grey Heron flew overhead, trying its best to look like one of the Dragons from Game Of Thrones;)

  If you are a fan of the show or just want a nice day out at a country park and castle then Castle Ward is a massive place to explore.

Day 16     Birds In An Irish Urban Garden

  Due to all the walking the previous day my left knee had now flared up from my Arthritis and looks to be once again filling with fluid that will need draining in the not too distant future.So it was a day of rest.

  I got out my Nature dot-to-dot book and found a puzzle to do.It was a Fox with 1104 dots to join up.It took a while and made my eyes hurt lol

                                    

  The other thing I got to do was put out some meal worms and see what birds would come down into the mum-in-laws garden while I hung around with my camera.It's a small urban garden in a city and mainly paved.

  Male Blackbird on a mission to get the mealworms first.

  Jackdaw balancing act.

  A Magpie quickly joined the Jackdaws.

  The Rooks were a bit more cautious of my presence so stayed further away.

  Male House Sparrow couldn't have cared less about my presence and came on the closest fence and bounced around my feet.

  The irridescent colours of the Starlings lit up in the afternoon Sun.

  Even though I was prevented from getting outdoors again, I could still interact with Nature from house door :)

  If you think you don't have any time for Nature during the day just try and spend 10 minutes in your garden instead of watching TV.Put some bird food out and even in a small concrete urban garden the birds will come :)

  Thanks for reading the blogs again and keeping up to date with my #30DaysWild challenge.