Overnight rain persisted well into mid-morning. Great for the parched landscape, yet not so brilliant if hoping to spend any time outdoors. By mid-day, however, my patience was wearing a little thin and I decided to take a wander down to Ramsgate Harbour. I parked the van above the Winterstoke Steps and walked the cliff-top path towards the town, thus allowing me to scan the gulls assembled on the new "quality street" apartments and hotel complex which overlook Ramsgate main beach. Quite why anyone would want to spend £750,000+ to purchase a flat overlooking Wetherspoons is way beyond my comprehension, yet surely someone has done the market research? Plenty of Herring Gulls to look at, yet not a single colour ring in sight, still I did stumble upon this piece of Thanet Council bollocks! (sorry I mean wisdom)
I live on "The Isle of Thanet" - the clue's in the title!!!!! Gulls are part of the ecosystem and quite how anyone is supposed to throw bread for the Sparrows, Pigeons and Starlings without also attracting gulls is beyond my comprehension. I wonder how the RSPB would feel about a sign "Don't feed the birds"? I digress, onward to the harbour.
It was still rather gloomy, yet remained dry and was actually brightening up by the time I decided to leave. The western arm, leading to the Harbour Lights Cafe was lined by guys fishing the rising tide. Those I spoke with said very little was happening beyond crab trouble! If it wasn't for Turnstones and Cormorants the effort would have been completely worthless. I then made my way around the marina area and out onto the eastern arm. A couple of Rock Pipits, a Kingfisher and two Grey Herons, roosting with the Cormorants out in the ferry port, were as good as it got. It wasn't until I'd almost reached the end of the arm that I spotted a juv Red-throated Diver out in the ferry port. Thinking I'd at least get a photo for the blog, the bird had other ideas. Over the course of the next forty minutes I was chasing shadows as I attempted to pre-empt the bird's route around the harbour. Eventually, however, it all came good and I was able to point the camera at my subject knowing that if I screwed up it wouldn't be for any other reason than user error/incompetence?
I have no doubts that competent photographers would have obtained far superior images. As I'm just a blogger, they'll certainly do for me!
Worth the chase. And it is a quite spectacular Wetherspoons....
ReplyDeleteAs with anything in life - effort equals reward? Whilst I have to agree that the old casino building does make for an impressive "Spoons" I'm not too sure how prospective homeowners will feel about the drunken antics of locals & holiday makers alike when parting with such substantial amounts of dough for the privilege!
DeleteHave you started Pike fishing yet? I'm certainly getting the "itch" - all the best - Dylan
One social session, my local river is still very weedy and my nearby pike paradise has been pronounced again out of bounds for piking. but yes, it was nice to get the piking gear wet at least
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