Dawn chases away the darkness of night revealing a fireball of a Sun that rises in the distance breaking the skyline of the Coromandel peninsular, splaying over the Firth of Thames and on to Miranda as another beautiful morning and day begins during the Miranda Field Course for 2012.
I have only included a few photos I took during this course but the course log-book will be much more detailed when completed by James.
An introduction to the Upper Firth of Thames eco-system: was provided by John (above) and this was a great and educational session.
Anne with a Crayfish which we pulled out of the traps that John had set up previously and below a close up of a Crayfish in the hand.
Wader-watch: was nearly a daily event or even a twice daily event depending on the tide times. This was always a great personal favourite for me.
Plant life of Miranda: was much more interesting and informative than I had actually expected it to be and I must say I really enjoyed these sessions. Above shows Eila and Chrisie, I have to say I found Eila to be an excellent tutor and she managed to open my eyes to the world of botany.
ID mud Stuff: This was brilliant, for ages I had wanted to know exactly what it is that the Red Knot feed on in the area of Leigh sands, Leigh on Sea and so to get the opportunity to learn this whilst on this course was just great.
Above shows David the tutor for this and several other sessions. I found David to be extremely knowledgeable, friendly but also have a great sense of humour.
Above shows the course participants getting stuck in with "Mr Woodley" over-seeing the operation.
Everybody really enjoyed this session as you can see by the smiles on their faces, above shows Trudy taking her sample with James & Natalie below showing a true brotherly & sisterly bond below.
Tanz" well she had to get stuck in and do something didn't she, I mean she always seem to dump her dishes and washing up on me, lol...
Above shows the area of mudflats as we departed and headed back for lunch with below showing Charmaine examining the items we found out out on the mudflats under the micro-scope.
"Digi- Micro-Scoping" The photo above and 3 below I took using the old Sony. This is digitally - micro-scoping and whilst I was trying to get the hang of getting the camera and the microscope in alignment with each other and in focus at the start, Trish, one of the participants turned around, looked at me, shook her head and said " Simon You really do have to get out more" lol, Trish was cool and seemed to enjoy a bit of banter.
Image above shows you Glcera which is the main food supply of Red Knot as well as small cockle's that we also found out on the mudflats.
Bar tailed Godwits featured heavily during this course and so it is only fitting that I include a photo that I took during one of the wader-watch sessions. This photo was taken early morning as the birds roosted during high tide on the Stilt pools and below shows dusk at Miranda bringing the day to an end.
I would just like to add that if anyone is considering getting involved with this course in the future, please don't think about it, just sign up for it, it is the best course I have ever done. A lot is crammed in during the week, the content is excellent, the pace is good, the tutors are all brilliant at what they do, the food is nothing less than 5 star which is all cooked and prepared by Audrey (who is also superb) and everybody involved is warm and welcoming throughout. I would just like to thank each person who was on this course with me, who helped me, made me laugh, had a bit of banter with me and kept me on toes (Trish - Tanz & Trudy). The weather was good to us throughout and I will never forget just how much I really did enjoy participating in this course. " Thank you to everybody" Below: Group photo of the Miranda Field Course 2012.
