Stretching Your Imagination

Mon.30th Nov.09.

                This is the 5th visit to Twiston and Ings Beck but it's a better day but colder, on the surrounding  Fells there's a covering of snow on on the highest slopes. I've been detirmined to capture an image of salmon spawning in the beck and I've succeeded..... if you can stretch your imagination and half screw up your eyes and then stretch your imagination a little more because the images are terrible, the sky was reflecting in the water the lighting was low and I couldn't crawl any closer because of a high fence.I've tried to boost the images on Photoshop but with very limited success.I'm certainly not satisfied so I'll be back for another visit in the next couple of weeks.                                             

The confluence of Ings and Twiston Becks       

 The two Salmon are to the right of the dead flower stalk

 

The run continues

Friday 27th nov.09

                           This has been the longest period I've ever known for the run of the Salmon up to the higher reaches of the River Ribble and it still goes on, the've been passing up through the falls since the second half of August. Today I just thought we would look in at Stainforth Foss to watch and marvel at the sheer volume of water going over these falls and to our surprise there were several Salmon trying to ascend the falls with no success while we were watching because of the volume of water. I've been watching the salmon run for over 50 years and it's definitely later than it used to be.There is a traditional day in our area for watching the Salmon spawning at various known locations on the river it is known as "Salmon Sunday" and it's always the Sunday nearest the 24th of November.

   So I've come to the conclusion that I might have been too early  to photograph them spawning so there's still a chance that I may still get the shots I'm after.

video..... Salmon at Padiham Weir

hur. 26th Nov. 09
Here are two short sections of a video I've made about the Salmon at Padiham Weir, it's my first attempt to upload video onto my blog. Each section is limited to 100 megabytes so that limits each video clip to about 30 seconds.

More Salmon at Stainforth Foss

Sat. 21st Nov 09

       I recieved these photos this afternoon after catching up with Eric at the Annual Video Club Newsreel Public Show last night which was followed by a great social get-together and supper at Sheila and Keiths house.

      The photos were taken at Stainforth Foss on the River Ribble north of Settle last Monday afternoon Nov 17th by Peter Ramsden a friend of Erics during their afternoon walk.                                                            

I'm determined to succeed

 Thurday Nov. 19th 09.

                            I've been down Twiston Beck again this afternoon on a overcast, dire, windy day but thankfully it didn't rain even though it was forecast. After yesterdays heavy rain it was another opportunity to see if the salmon had ascended  the beck to spawn.After firstly walking up the beck for about a mile I saw nothing so I retraced my walk and then followed the beck downstream for about another mile to where it joins Ings Beck, my hopes of any sightings being almost zero so my approach to some of the more favoured spots was rather clumsy and noisy and in doing so I was unaware that I was staring at 3 salmon at the lower end of the small  pool perfectly camouflaged against the pebbly bottom of the stream, by the time I'd realised what I was seeing and poised my camera they were off into deeper water. I crouced down and waited for about 20 mins. but they didn't return and by then the light had faded, but I am determined to return and capture a shot of the salmon spawning somewhere along the beck before the've all spawned.

Twiston Beck with Pendle Hill in the background

Upper Twiston Beck

                The pool where I saw the salmon.... looking upstream  

Looking down stream

  The salmon were positioned just to the right hand side of the submerged dark rock... perfect for photographing

Rain and more rain

Wed.18th Nov. 09.  

After very heavy rain overnight my pond has overflowed onto the patio area and parts of the garden. The discolouration is water runoff from the surrounding fields which has run through a building plot at the top of the avenue and picked up the colour from the clay subsoil. The sediment will sink to the bottom of the pond  and the water will clear again if the land dries out, but I've just heard the local weather focast and there could be up to 10 inches of rain in the next 2 days.

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Where are all the salmon spawning ?

A late Autumn afternoon on Twiston Beck a tributary of the River Ribble..... we walked along the length of this beck to where it joins Ings Beck and followed the now larger beck for another another 1/2 mile but not a sign of the salmon spawning. A few years ago we would have seen several  fish of up to10lbs in weight along this gravely stretch prepairing to spawn.

Sunday 15th Nov. 09. Another walk into the Bowland fells to the fish ladder.  This is my 4th visit but again no sign of any salmon, either we're  very unlucky or the fish have changed their spawning time due to the change in our climate. What else did we see ? ........a flock of  Lapwings and Fieldfares and at dusk large flocks of  Starlings going to roost.

Sloe Berries fully ripe and not too bitter

 

A wintery scene 

Hugging an Oak tree about 250 years old.

                                       

Heads above the clouds

Tues.10th Nov. 09.

      It's coming up to the season that I enjoy if only for one reason..... Winter Walking. Looking back in my picture folders there's one walk that will always remain in my memory not only for the spectacular scenery but also to have been able share it with some of my best mates, it was the walk that I also filmed with my video camera in Jan. 2006.

 

Warmer on the summits (temperature inversion) 

All  pictures ... David Ashworth

                                     
The Brocken Spectre

  Images below are frames from my video

 

               

       Kirkby Stephen Station the end of a memorable walk      

                                                        
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    The walk (led by Eric) started off from Garsdale Head railway station  on a cold, foggy, frosty morning in the Pennines, but as the day unfolded it turned out to be one of the walks of a lifetime and I called it...." HEADS ABOVE THE CLOUDS". The 13 miles walk followed the high ridges  along  the Pennines  over Wild Boar Fell and down into Kirkby Stephen. 
      The Highlight of the walk was the sighting of the "Brocken Spectre" the ghostly shadow of ourselves being projected down on the clouds with a halo around us, probably a once in a life time experience. I hope that we can repeat it but sadly we'll never be able to experience the same weather conditions unless we're very lucky.