- Oct 17 11:40 am
#80455
Wow! Yesterday late afternoon/evening I witnessed quite the most remarkable scene from the dyke in front of our house. But let me start from the beginning…
What with this past weekend's storm, once things quietened down late yesterday afternoon/early evening, I decided to take a walk on the dyke to see if a lot of new driftwood has, well, drifted in. Once on the dyke I noticed that the tide was unusually high: I assumed this was partly due to the storm surge plus a king tide at the moment. Probably about 250 – 300m south of our townhouse complex the water was very nearly right up to the dyke.
And then: another unusual sight: a multitude of seagulls milling around the tide line. I could not make out what this was all about but clearly SOMETHING was up: there were a couple of herons and eagles as well.
In spite of my (repeated!) oath to NEVER walk out to the dyke without my camera… yesterday I again walked out the house without my camera! It was already pretty dusky outside so I did not expect to be able to capture anything worthwhile in any case. Let that be a lesson to me.. AGAIN!! I tried doing a bit of video with my iPhone but that was clearly a waste of time. So I called my wife & asked her to grab my camera and bring it out.
Once I had a proper camera it soon became clear what the fuss was all about: gazillions of voles had to escape the rising water and, with no Noah and no Ark, they headed for higher ground ahead of the tide on foot. So they all ended up massed together in little patches of slightly higher ground/reeds/grasses.
And the seagulls were having a field day! Picking swimming voles out of the water, climbing voles out of the grasses, running voles off the ground: you name it, they got it! An absolute volian feast!
I got some somewhat OK video of the action: can be seen athttp://youtu.be/ZOyBVfMwg_E on Youtube. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera and finally figured out what was going on it was pretty dark, so the video is far from perfect. It was recorded and uploaded to Youtube in 4K resolution but I do not suppose many of you have access to that, but at least try watching it in HD to see the little voles swimming, diving desparately as the gulls approach, climbing the grasses etc. The video reminded me of an Asterix cartoon: there is always something happening in the background in every picture!
Not a good day to be a vole but the seagulls certainly were not complaining!
What with this past weekend's storm, once things quietened down late yesterday afternoon/early evening, I decided to take a walk on the dyke to see if a lot of new driftwood has, well, drifted in. Once on the dyke I noticed that the tide was unusually high: I assumed this was partly due to the storm surge plus a king tide at the moment. Probably about 250 – 300m south of our townhouse complex the water was very nearly right up to the dyke.
And then: another unusual sight: a multitude of seagulls milling around the tide line. I could not make out what this was all about but clearly SOMETHING was up: there were a couple of herons and eagles as well.
In spite of my (repeated!) oath to NEVER walk out to the dyke without my camera… yesterday I again walked out the house without my camera! It was already pretty dusky outside so I did not expect to be able to capture anything worthwhile in any case. Let that be a lesson to me.. AGAIN!! I tried doing a bit of video with my iPhone but that was clearly a waste of time. So I called my wife & asked her to grab my camera and bring it out.
Once I had a proper camera it soon became clear what the fuss was all about: gazillions of voles had to escape the rising water and, with no Noah and no Ark, they headed for higher ground ahead of the tide on foot. So they all ended up massed together in little patches of slightly higher ground/reeds/grasses.
And the seagulls were having a field day! Picking swimming voles out of the water, climbing voles out of the grasses, running voles off the ground: you name it, they got it! An absolute volian feast!
I got some somewhat OK video of the action: can be seen athttp://youtu.be/ZOyBVfMwg_E on Youtube. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera and finally figured out what was going on it was pretty dark, so the video is far from perfect. It was recorded and uploaded to Youtube in 4K resolution but I do not suppose many of you have access to that, but at least try watching it in HD to see the little voles swimming, diving desparately as the gulls approach, climbing the grasses etc. The video reminded me of an Asterix cartoon: there is always something happening in the background in every picture!
Not a good day to be a vole but the seagulls certainly were not complaining!
Cheers
Alwyn
Alwyn
- By GMcD