Yesterday’s early morning walk….
Clay Head and the east coast
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: Laxey
October Laxey sunrise
Gullible’s Travels : The Great Black-backed Gull
It was the dead man’s chalk line coloured in with black marker pen, gliding gracefully over the water that initially caught my eye.
Curiosity kicked in and my research assistant Molly and I set out to discover more about this creature. It transpires it’s the world’s largest gull, a Great Black-backed Gull. Large billed, heavily built, huge wingspan, bold and ferociously predatory.
Molly aka Elvis, the Budda, Chubsy.
Its usual stomping ground is around the harbour, along the shoreline or sheltering on the craggy headland. I’ve been watching and photographing this bird for a few weeks now and it always seems to have a dominating presence, top of the hierarchy over the other Gulls, the Godfather, the Big Cheese, first in the pecking order.
Preening time in the fresh water running from the river into the sea.
A juvenile showing off its broad wingspan
The GBBG is similar to the Lesser Black-backed Gull but is bigger and has pale pink legs as opposed to the yellow legs of the Lesser Black-backed Gull. The red spot on the beak appears smudged like the Tasmanian Devil’s mother’s lipstick.
All natural ingredients
I find the colours, shapes and textures in nature to be quite beautiful and serene. These photographs were all taken over the past few months in Laxey, except the cormorant photograph which I took in Peel harbour.
Laxey Bay surfing…wetsuit recommended.
I was on Laxey beach in early June practising panning with different shutter speeds. At the time I was planning to take some photographs at the TT motorbike races and I needed to practice on some moving objects beforehand, so this surfer turned up at the right time.
Vertical Limit
The fearless death-defying mountain goats appear in a flock on the Laxey hillside a few times during the year. The pathway gets quite busy with walkers but the goats just keep a low profile and maintain a close distance to their flock. Sometimes there are a couple of stags keeping watch at the top of the hill.
Do you hear the grasshopper that is at your feet?
The meadow at Ballanette wetlands is often bursting with butterflies and moths during this time of the year. My preferred is the six-spot burnet moth that I’ve been trying to capture clearly in a photograph. These photographs aren’t as sharp as I’d hoped but I was captivated by the tiny, almost invisible grasshopper balanced on a leaf. It could be heard but not seen at the time so I was pleased to see it appear in my image.
Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered…
These are a few photographs I took recently at sunrise on Laxey shore.
Ambition of the ice-cream shop sparrows
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been taking photographs of the Laxey sparrows that live in the roof of the beach ice-cream shop. I admire the gutsy one above who persisted on keeping hold and breaking up a gigantic twig for the nest.
Let the great wheel spin 