A few more photographs from our recent visit to Anglesey which include our first visit to Abermenai Point The protected dune plant, Sea holly (Eryngium maritimum) is native to most European coastlines and resembles a metallic blue flowering thistle growing to a height 60 cm. In Elizabethan times in England, these plants were believed to be a strong aphrodisiac and in 2002 Sea holly was nominated the 2002 County flower for the city of Liverpool.
We might not have done very well in the sea fishing stakes during our summer visit to Anglesey but we managed to get out and about a few times so here are a few of the better photographs I took while we were there. All of the photographs in this post are taken using the Canon EOS 450D with most of them using the standard ‘cheap’ 18-55mm lens. To enhance the skies I used a hoya circular polariser which also cut [... read rest of post]
I know I go through all sorts of clothing and footwear in my sea fishing and walking adventures and although I like browsing through all the outdoor gear shops it’s a pain sometimes as I live in a village a fair distance from any major retailer. Well this month that all changed as just up the road from where I live a shop has opened called trek outdoors which aims to offer a range of quality technical and casual brands, [... read rest of post]
As the weather has been so great recently I went for a long walk along our local river, the Douglas to practice my photography skills and to see if i could manage to get a half decent image of birds in flight with my current equipment. With the dry weather and the sun the banks of the River Douglas had dried considerably leaving shallow pools for wading birds to sift through for food, the usual suspects were in abundance; Oyster [... read rest of post]
As we went up to my parents for lunch, a very pleasant yearly gathering of the ‘clan’ myself, Dad and my younger brother took Megan (Mum and Dad’s black Labrador) on a quick walk round the country lanes to tire her out before we sat down for lunch. As usual I took my camera but I utterly failed at the ‘wildlife cameraman’ bit, it wasn’t my fault… even Megan was stunned. As we rounded a bend in the lane running [... read rest of post]
After some fairly dismal weather these past couple of months I finally managed to get out for a walk along our local river, the Douglas, and as I’m a bit (understatement of the century) rusty I took out my camera just to check it (and me) is working as it should. There wasn’t really much to see exfcept a lot of ducks including some Widgeon (which make the amazing whistling noise), Teal, Shelducks and the usual suspects of Mallard and [... read rest of post]
As most people who blog I constantly scan the web for articles of interest and I came across a feature on the Guardian’s website called Enjoy England so I thought I’d make a list of three of my favorite things to do in England, except of course I’m including Wales. Sea Fishing – rocks, estuaries, beaches, everywhere… It had to be the first thing I mentioned. England, in fact the entire UK and Ireland coast has some of the best [... read rest of post]
As the wind continued to be a little severe we sacked sea fishing off for and went for a walk along the cliffs between Cemlyn Bay and Carmel Head. The scenery was stunning, with great views of ‘The Skerries’ over the sea to the north west. There was an amazing variety of wildlife on show not least being a huge number of Green Veined White butterflies, feeding on the cliffs out of the wind. At least I think that’s what [... read rest of post]
As the wind got up to ‘dangerous’ speeds and made a lot of our favourite marks unfishable we decided to have an evening walk around the headland at Cemlyn bay. This is turning into one of our favorite spots as it seems to be virtually deserted and area is blessed with wildlife of all types. We picked up a book on circular coastal walks around Anglesey, “Coastal Walks Around Anglesey” which is very good and the short walk we did [... read rest of post]
After Tuesdays late night fly fishing excitement Wednesday was another day for walking around the coastal cliffs in our never rending quest for the perfect picnic spot. Point Lynas comes very, very close, no people, fantastic views and blazing sunshine – yep, almost perfect. Another good excuse to take out the ‘big’ camera where I spotted a few Labyrinth Spiders (Agelena labyrinthica) which people (myself included until recently) mistakenly identify as Funnel Web Spiders. Labyrinth Spiders aren’t harmful – they [... read rest of post]
