Blog Anniversary – 10 years of Navasola nature on WordPress

I am planning to choose a key post from each year for each month of 2024. For today I have chosen some photos from each January since 2014 and with the link to my very first blog post. I had no idea what connections and inspirations would come from this. My nature writing started with this first blog and has finally come to fruition with my publication of my attempt at nature fiction and having such wonderful connections with people and wildlife in so many places.

Latest news for my novel Navaselva below.

Coming soon for February 23rd evening a zoom launch with readings and Q and As. Will post with further details soon,

My very first blog post and I was so surprised by the viburnum berries taken with my phone getting my first like by a really good photographer’s blog. January 2014

Autumn and Spring in January: Mushrooms, berries, blossom and birdsong.

Viburnum Tinus with the first flower seen January 28th:some berries can still be seen behind flower. January 2014

January 2015

Winter scene on our normal walk with Lotti , and Ruth in 2015. Taken on the Fuenteheridos to Galaroza track where this deserted inn or Bodega can be seen from the times when the tracks were the highways about 300 years ago.

January 2016

Saving a bumblebee January 2016

Holy boat not at sea onT’s 70th birthday trip to the Azores 2016

January 2017

Halimium on the yellow hillside 2017

Lotti, Ruth’s Tibetan friend with her special lashes under the fringe.

January 2018

The nativity display at the Bomberos/fire service station in Tavira – Early January 2018

And below the desperate attempts on the beach at Monte Gordo , on the Algarve, to save this whale. Most heartening was how so many people were concerned about the fate of this most magnificent and suffering soul.

The stranded sperm whale

Sperm whale moving its tail and those trying to keep whale in enough water.

Birds at Dehesa de Abajo, near the Donana wetlands, in January 2019 on our first trip and where we felt so ‘filled up’ with the joy of seeing so many birds in one day.

Storks making love?

Linnet

Spoonbills flying overhead

And below the innocence of January 2020. Buff and all the wild animal characters in Navaselva were waiting for the arrival of Jay Ro’s human part of the story. Tortoiseshells and bumble bees can be seen in January. Buff is in Ruth’s garden where there are always some early flowers and rosemary flowering also keeps the bumblebees busy.

Buff tailed bumblebee

But January 2021 we were stuck in the UK with the Pandemic and another long UK lockdown and full travel restrictions while waiting for vaccines.

These were phone pictures sent to us from Fuenteheridos and Ruth’s garden. Yes, It can snow here, especially in January but we have never seen the snow ourselves and missed this downfall.

For January 2022 there was the aftermath of Ruth’s wonderful bird paintings and exhibition. She completed so many in the pandemic lockdowns We were thinking about going to visit the cranes overwintering in Extremadura for January but reports were of very little water in some key crane places. But we could enjoy Ruth’s paintings of the European cranes.

Back in January 2023 and there is a roaring wood fire as we have so much wood from Storm Barbara with so many of the old chestnut trees fallen branches. I also have my first short story published in the annual anthology of Bridge House Publishing with the theme of Evergreen. It is about a fir tree and as I love to do , from the perspective of the tree as it survives for much longer than just a tree for Christmas.

So we return to January 2024 and with much gratitude to the blogging community over these years and a little reflection on ways forward. There will be more on my book and some pages on the characters and places. Maybe some walks and introductions to the villages of the Sierra Aracena too.

And of course Bird Place of the Month. Thanks for the contributions so far. Just descriptions or observations from your own backyard will be great too. Here we have just seen a crested tit close to the house very clearly but it was too difficult to get a photo and I just looked out and enjoyed seeing this new and delightful character explore the olive and hawthorn tree.

Gannets- a very British responsibility or a very Scottish responsibility. Over 50 % of gannets in the world use the British Isles and Ireland for their nesting colonies

Conservation and cooperation across human borders?  Marine reserves, Seabird reserves. Wildlife knows no boundaries.

Feature Picture by Lesley Martin
24/05/12
‘The population of gannets on the Bass Rock, off the East Lothian coast in Scotland, has reached an all time record. There are now around 150,000 birds which will increase further once this year’s chicks have hatched. The Bass Rock is the largest single gannet colony in the world and was described famously by Sir David Attenborough as ‘one of the wildlife wonders of the world’.’

We hope that on this referendum day for Scotland  whoever wins  the power  will protect the amazing range of wildlife that also has its home in and around Scotland.

On my recent visit back to the UK we  went to visit the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs. Here we were able to watch at close view gannets flying, soaring by from cliff top viewing points. For me far better than taking a boat out to sea and far off rocks. Still haven’t quite recovered from my 24 hour ferry from Santander!

We learnt some interesting facts about gannets and can now possibly age them as under five years old or over.  The young are quite black and then become more speckled until when mature at 5 and ready to mate their plumage becomes brilliant white with contrasting black wing tips. Around their brain is a kind of jelly that protects against the cold of the sea and their rapid dives in to catch fish.

Another place that we saw gannets a couple of years ago was off the coast of Ireland. We were visiting our friend in Kerry and went on a boat trip to the mystical and wild Skelligs. On Skelligs Michael in May there were also plenty of puffins and other sea birds  such as Razorbills.  Two places well worth a visit for the wildness and the wild inhabitants. Photos below with thanks to Nature Watch and other wiki sources. Last one …. My iPhone…..

 

 

 

 

Gannets at Bempton cliffs, Yorkshire. An RSPB reserve.