nature – Page 2 – Nannie RaRa

Nature paintings

6th Dec 2023 Nannie RaRa

Recently I’ve been painting leaves and flowers in watercolour, following workshops held at Firstsite in Colchester with Lisa Temple-Cox.

Cone from a Scot’s pine

Autumn cyclamen

One of my favourite flowers, I love it that the flowers appear before the leaves

Fuschia

The fuschia are still blooming when most other flowers have finished.

Gorse

Gorse is in flower any time of the year.

Rose hips

Rose hips were used to make a syrup full of vitamin C.

Ivy

Ivy is one of the plants associated with Christmas decorations, but it is around all year .

Nerine

Nerines are another bulb that fowers in the autumn. With their tall stems, the bright pink flowers brighten up any dull day.

Oak leaf

Autumn and the oak is the last to lose its leaves. This is an example of the chlorophyll gradually leaching from the leaf.

Holly

The holly and its berries, so very much part of Christmas. The leaves are so shiny – I find them very difficult to paint.

I hope you enjoyed these paintings.

nature

Great spotted woodpecker feeding young

9th Nov 2023 Nannie RaRa

I regularly have great spotted woodpeckers on my peanut feeders. They have brought their young along and shown them where the peanuts are,

The young woodpeckers start by appearing in the high branches of the oak tree and shout out for food. The young ones are timid and expect the parent to bring the food to where ever they are.

Eventually the parents persuade them to come closer to the peanuts, sitting on the same branch as the feeder or even on the feeder with the adult. Now the young know where to get food.

This video was taken a couple of summers ago and I still have generations of great spotted woodpeckers visiting.

Enjoy!

nature, Travel

Galapagos adventure

9th Sep 2023 Nannie RaRa

I recently went on an adventure to the Galapagos islands with Hurtigruten, on MS Santa Cruz II. You can read all about it in my blogs.

Galapagos adventure – Mosquera Islet

Galapagos adventure – San Cristobel

Galapagos adventure – Santa Fe

Galapagos adventure – Santa Cruz

Galapagos adventure – Espanola

Galapagos adventure – Eden Islet and North Seymour

nature, Travel

Galapagos adventure – Eden Islet and North Seymour

9th Sep 20239th Sep 2023 Nannie RaRa

On our penultimate day we went for a panga ride round Eden islet. There are no landing spots there as there are cliffs up from the sea. We watched pelicans fishing as well as the frigate birds and brown noddies looking for food to take. A sea turtle poked its head out of the water.

There were a couple of young herons on the nest. You could just make out their long necks among the shrubs.

More deep-water snorkelling for my grandson while I went in the glass-bottomed boat. We had one of the naturalists on board so they were able to point out the various fish, sea cucumber, ray, sharks that we saw.

Our final landing was at North Seymour. There was a forest of leafless trees which are used to make incense. On our walk we came across lots of frigate birds on their nests, with the males puffing out their red chests.

There were also blue-footed boobies, several with fluffy white youngsters.

Their nests are just a spot on the ground surrounded by bird poop to designate their territory.

On our last day I looked out of the cabin window and there were tens of pelicans by the ship. We went on deck and could see them clearly, and in the water were several sharks. Frigate birds were flying around.

What a wonderful sight for the end of our Galapagos adventure!

Previous: Galapagos adventure – Espanola

The beginning: Galapagos adventure – Mosquera Islet

nature, Travel

Galapagos adventure – Espanola

9th Sep 20239th Sep 2023 Nannie RaRa

Our next island to visit was Espanola. It is an island with cliffs and boulders that we had to walk over. We saw the Galapagos hawk and marine iguanas – these were redder in colour than the ones on the other islands. There were about a dozen lying together on a rock.

There were the usual sea lions on the beach. There was a young sea lion that was only a few hours old. The placenta was still lying near the mother.

baby sea lion, only a few hours old with its mother

Another young seal lion was very curious about us.

There were lots of mocking birds, and blue-footed boobies were on their nest. One pair of boobies had decided to have their nest on the footpath. We had to negotiate around them. They weren’t worried, just sat there and looked at us.

On this island was the Galapagos waved albatross. Espanola is the only island you will see them. They were paired up and preening each other.

There was a nest with a young albatross in it – it was half fluffy. It’s parents had gone to sea to find it food.

As we walked along the cliff, we could see a blowhole caused by the waves rushing into a hole in the rocks and being forced out through a hole upwards. The water came up a long way and made a rainbow each time.

There were many frigate birds flying around and lots of Nasca boobies.

Time for kayaking – the first time I had been. It was enjoyable until my grandson decided to rock the kayak.

More deep-water snorkelling for my grandson where he saw white-tipped reef sharks. It is said the Galapagos is the only place where someone shouts shark and everyone jumps in the water to look!

We ended the day on the beach in Gardner Bay. It was a long stretch of pure white sand – plus the usual sea lions. I went for a swim. Sea lions came and joined us.

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