Summer 7

Spring cleaning, computer stress, visitors and some Jekyll and Hyde weather.

Monday 3rd August, 2015.

The week started with two consecutive wet days which was lucky as far as the “spring” cleaning was concerned.  It rained hard for most of Sunday.  Monday was mainly cloudy and drizzly but too damp to be pleasant working outside.

On Monday morning I noticed some birds up in the meadowsweet near the summerhouse and got the binoculars to have a closer look.  They turned out to be two blackcaps - a female that was feeding a young fledgling.  Unfortunately they were too far away to photograph.  While I was watching I saw some chaffinches and a blackbird apparently eating ants at the top of the lawn.  They may have been picking up flying ants emerging from the nests up there.  This is the time of year when the flying ants embark on their mating flights.  Every now and then one of the chaffinches would writhe on the ground - possibly trying to dislodge biting ants - and that was very nearly the sum total of my garden birdwatching for the week.  

The spring cleaning should have been spread out over the rest of the week but it ran into a major glitch on Wednesday.  The upgrade to Windows 10 was released and my computer tried to upgrade via the update system and kept failing.  I wasn’t sure how to stop these upgrade attempts so I tried to update manually but I think I may have used command prompt instead of command prompt as admin.  After downloading, etc for well over an hour it failed again.  So I had yet another bash.  This time I used a recommended download tool.  It took most of the afternoon but eventually I ended up with Windows 10.  My nerves were shattered though . . . and I had wasted an entire day which should have been devoted to house cleaning.

By Friday, the house was more or less acceptable - and I drove down to Ronaldsway to meet the morning flight from Dublin.  Our Canadian daughter and her three girls arrived on time.  They were utterly exhausted after a sleepless night on the transatlantic flight from Toronto and spent the afternoon catching up on some much needed sleep.

Saturday was a sunny day. The forecast predicted that it might be the only sunny day of the week so we went for a short scenic walk in the afternoon.

We drove to Maughold village and walked through the churchyard.  Before heading down to the coast, I paused to take a photo over the churchyard gate with North Barrule in the background.

There was a cool breeze but it was reasonably warm in the sunshine and we walked down the farm track which leads to Drynane, a little cove where there is an obsolete iron mine, not far from the lighthouse . . .

We arrived at the cove after waiting briefly en route  for the visiting photographers who were delayed - first by a field of sheep, and then by an over-active ladybird which refused to pose for a photo, and finally by a clump of harebells near the gate into the field.

The girls climbed over the rocks and posed for photos.

As we were leaving the cove I caught a glimpse of a little bird in the distance above the entrance to the mine.  I wasn’t sure whether it had settled on a bramble or whether I was just looking at a leaf.  It was too far away to be sure - so I took a photo.  It turned out to be a wren - with a beakful of bugs for its babies!

We headed along the narrow path that curves around the steep banks above the rocks.  This bridge was built some years ago after there was a landslip caused by torrential rain.  

The other end of the path near Port Mooar is also prone to weather damage.  There the path is occasionally undermined by high tides combined with onshore gales.  But today the path was in good condition.  The vegetation had been strimmed recently and there was almost no mud.  This was lucky because I had forgotten to take my hiking boots and was walking in light shoes.

The coast was looking good with blue skies and deep blue sea.

There were plenty of flowers to photograph too. Our daughter even found a late wild orchid.  There were numerous patches of mayweed - possibly sea mayweed but it is hard to distinguish from the scented and scentless varieties and they even hybridise sometimes.

The heather is starting to flower in warm coastal areas.

We approached Port Mooar . . .

. . .  but that wasn’t the end of the wild flower photography.  There were even a few flowers among the shingle on the beach.

. . . and the warm, sheltered lane from the shore was lined with meadowsweet, white bindweed, tufted vetch, horsetails, great willowherb, brambles, honeysuckle, bird’s foot trefoil and other delights.

Yesterday the Island weather exhibited its Jekyll and Hyde character and the whole day was overcast, rainy and windy.  There was supposed to be a lull in the rain in the early afternoon so we drove out to the Point of Ayre to photograph another of the lighthouses in the north of the Island.

At this time of year part of the shingle beach is fenced off to protect the nesting terns - and the visitors.  Terns are feisty little birds and do their best to chase away visitors who venture too close to their nests.  We saw gannets and cormorants flying past as well as the terns who used the posts on their boundary fence as look-out perches, and we were watched by an inquisitive seal.

There was also a group of ducks close to the shore.  I couldn’t get a close-up photo without annoying the terns but I think they were probably eider ducks - possibly a group of females and juveniles.  There were no males in breeding plumage but after their moult the males have dark “eclipse plumage” and look similar to the females so there may have been some in the group.

It is sunny again today after a wet start - but windy.  The girls are shopping in Douglas and Tim and I have been watching a couple of little blackcaps enjoying the blackcurrants.  This is a female - only the males have a black head.