the Kennet and Avon Wildlife Calendar 2022

My 2022 Calendar is now on sale for £10; if you're too far away from the K&A, or simply can't find my boat, then you can get one from Devizes Books, or online in my Etsy shop, free postage in the UK.

I'll also be at the Floating Fair at Bradford on Avon this coming weekend, December 4-5.

fox on  Pickle Hill, Vale of Pewsey

a wren at Smelly Bridge

starlings at Sells Green, near Devizes

a badger and otter at Bishops Cannings

jays in Conkwell Woods

more otter fun

Waving to Kelvin and Helmholtz

At dawn, I went out to say good morning to the starlings in the reed bed. The canal was icing over; as the morning went on, the ice advanced from either side to meet in the middle, before the sun warmed things up enough to melt it away again.

But over to the east I saw row of curlicues in the clouds, like two intertwined sine waves.

It was a Kelvin-Helmholtz wave.You get these when a warm air mass is sitting on top of a colder one, and they're moving at different speeds. Very exciting, if you get excited by that sort of thing.

I do.

some like it otter

Here's the otter chasing a pike. I was worrying that our local otter had been killed; it hadn't been around for a few weeks, and I read that one had been killed down at Foxhangers, which is not so far away as to make it unlikely, given their wide-ranging habits.

But towards midnight last night, that familiar bump and swish, and I knew it was still with us.

This is the last picture for my 2022 calendar, which has been sent off to the printers and should be available within the week.

the jays are busy in Conkwell Woods

The latest picture for the canal calendar shows Hibah and Clare on their boat Hunky Dory, cruising through Conkwell Woods on the Kennet and Avon between Bradford on Avon and Bath. There's the Dundas Aqueduct in the background. Hunky Dory, by the way, is a rather nice little boat that they hire out; details here on their website.

I like the sound of the jays screeching in the woods here in autumn, as they busily dedicate themselves to the task of redistributing acorns. Hence their name, Garrulus Glandarius - 'noisy acorn muncher'.

Only a few weeks now before the next Floating Fair at Bradford on Avon on the weekend of 4-5 December. We missed out all the fairs last year and earlier this year because of the lockdowns. So whiule I may wish that there were more stringent rules on distancing and masks in public places, I'm very glad that we'll be doing the fair again, because they're great fun.

And I must get the damn calendar printed ASAP!