Nutmeg Photography Explorations Take 2: Spring Springing and Summer Events

Now that summer is finally here and life is slowly getting back to some sort of new normal, summer events have returned. While the flowers and birds continue with their usual every day lives, we can finally come out of lockdown just in time for the sun to show off. Cricket is in full swing at Colchester, and the sun has already done its job in drying out all the winter mud along the footpaths and fields in Essex. Apart from my cricket matches, this last weekend I attended my first public event since lockdown last year: a joust at Hedingham Castle by the Knights of Royal England.

But first: Spring. The beginning of spring gave us a hint of the summer to come. Sunshine and flowers popped up in the garden, before the April Showers rained down in vengeance through most of May - should we start calling it May Rain instead of April Showers? I was able to catch the first bees and wasps of the spring before the rain chased everything back into hiding.

The blue tits were busy in April and May spring cleaning ready for their next clutch of eggs. They took old nesting material out of the nest, landed on a tree, and dropped what they were carrying.

Sadly, today I saw a sparrow proclaiming his victory over the nesting box, standing on the apex of the house and shouting for all to hear, before flying into the nest and out again.

I love the runway this iris has on the petals, guiding the insects into it.

The sun trying to hide behind a thin veil of cloud.

You would be forgiven for thinking this was the moon.

Those of you who have followed my blog for years, will know I have a love of medieval history, particularly the Wars of the Roses. When Hedingham Castle announced they would hold their annual joust this year, despite Covid, I booked tickets without a second thought - well, the only thought was which day would be best. I have never seen a joust and most, if not all, of my knowledge of medieval jousting comes from the film A Knight's Tale. In the 1100-1200s knights were more likely to take part in melee-style tournaments which were closer in format to open field battles. I think jousting as we know it, only really became popular in the 14th century and more so during Henry VIII's reign (I may be wrong!). When I told friends and colleagues I was going to watch the joust at Hedingham, I was surprised and a little shocked when the most common reply I heard was "what's that?" or "is that that thing with sticks?" "It's called a lance, hello" - to quote Wat from A Knight's Tale.

As I took so many photos it has taken me all week to sift through them and then choose my favourites to add to this blog. The collection is still extensive. So for the rest of this blog I will share the falconry photos from the day here, and the joust photos on a new post!

We watched the falconry display before the second joust and were not disappointed by the birds they introduced to us. Coda Falconry from Waltham Abbey introduced us to three birds.

They started with a very rare melanistic barn owl. This is a barn owl with dark brown feathers instead of the usual white and cream. You won't see an owl with this colouring in the wild as the parents are known to reject them. Coda believe this is not necessarily to do with the colour but the complications this may have on other aspects of the bird such as eye sight, hearing and their size - they are smaller.

Eclipse the melanistic barn owl has only been at Coda for a short time and is new to the display scene. In order to get him used to display, he was just taken around the ring and allowed to perch on poles holding the boundary ropes.

The next bird was a harris hawk; seemingly a favourite at displays. I saw one at Hever Castle during my first year in the UK. This beautiful Harris Hawk is Poppy and she was very happy to show off her running skills, making the announcer laugh even though she's seen it many times before.

When she was given her final treat, day-old chicks, she brought her wings around her to shield the food from other predators. This is called mantling, her wings like a mantle.

The final bird is also a rare species. He may look like a peregrine falcon but Storm is far larger than a peregrine. He is a hybrid falcon, bred for pest control. Part peregrine for speed and agility, part gyrfalcon for size, and part barbary falcon. He was super-fast and I found it impossible to get a clear photo when he was flying.