Tag Archives: hampshire

Red Kites Hunting for Food

The reintroduction of red kites in the south of England has been very effective and they are now widespread across the south. While were were visiting recently, I was initially excited to see one but rapidly got used to them being around. We didn’t have to go far before we saw one. The forked tail makes them easy to identify compared to the longer established buzzards. Getting a good shot of one was a different story.

While we were walking through Longparish, we saw one hunting near the river. The conditions were rather overcast so, while I got a few shots, they weren’t as clear as I would have liked. However, the next time we were walking that way, the sun was out, as was the red kite! It was just a case of getting lucky and having it come around to the side where I could get some good light on it and then I was able to catch some shots. There was actually a buzzard circling nearby but it didn’t come very close. I guess it was camera shy.

Longparish – Like A Postcard

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The first part of our UK trip in February involved staying in the village of Longparish. This is the combination of a few hamlets into one “long parish”. We had some spare time when we first arrived to wander around the village. It was so picturesque, it was almost like someone had taken the instructions, make a cute English village and done exactly that.

It is situated along the River Test. The river is in multiple branches at this location and they all seem to be running quite fast. There are also streams running through the village that are feeding the main river. Thatched cottages abound and a couple of pubs provide the right village feel. There are a couple of large houses – one at each end of the village – which, presumably, owned the majority of the land in days gone by. They still seem to have a lot of land. The village cricket club finishes things off but, since it was not yet the season, we didn’t get to watch any matches.

Fishes In The Test

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The River Test runs through the grounds of Mottisfont and there is a diverted section of it that runs through a very unnaturally straight section of river near the house. As we walked along the path by this section, we saw a couple of fish in the water. As we moved on, we realized that there were loads of them. To my untrained eye, they looked like they might be trout but I am not an angler or any sort of sim expert. I got some photos of them but video seemed like the best bet so I had a good at that too. Can you identify them?

HMS Severn

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The Royal Navy has a bunch of coastal patrol vessels that are named after rivers around the UK. From what I have read, HMS Severn is one of the first batch of vessels and it is less capable than the later batch. Although originally planned for retirement, it has been kept in service patrolling the UK coastal region. It was heading out of Portsmouth when I saw it. I think it was originally painted grey when it was commissioned but it currently has more of a camo scheme applied. It made me think of the disruptive camouflage used during the First World War. I actually shot a pano of it as it headed out taking advantage of the lack of an immediate background to avoid any issues with the movement between shots.

Updated AAC Apaches

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The British Army bought a bunch of Apaches which were locally assembled by Westland and were fitted with Rolls Royce Turbomeca engines to bolster the local content. Since that acquisition, the Apache has gone through a bunch of upgrades and the current AH-64E Apache Guardian is the latest and greatest. The British Army decided to acquire these and, this time, there is none of the local content to worry about. Their airframes have been rotated back to Boeing and AH-64E airframes get delivered. Some might have originally been British but others are not.

Middle Wallop is not the busy airfield it once was but there is still some Army flying underway and that includes operation of these new Apaches. While I was visiting, there were some airframes flying around the local countryside and also doing some pattern work. They pattern is a bit distant from the museum area but I was still able to catch some shots of them. Hopefully I will see them in more detail at some point but this was my first encounter with the updated fleet.

Almshouses In Winchester

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Old English towns often have almshouses somewhere near the center and Winchester is no exception. We wandered under an archway and came upon some old places that definitely had the look of almshouses and turned out to be exactly that. Some maintenance was underway (which required some careful angling of the camera) but they seemed in good shape. It was a peaceful little space given how close it was to the center of the city.

Ducks Fighting The Current

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The River Itchen runs through the center of Winchester and, just downstream of the old mill building, the water is very shallow. The river bed provides a good location for a lot of weed to grow and the ducks seemed to enjoy feeding on this weed. However, it did require a fair amount of effort on their parts as the current was flowing fast in the shallow areas. It was fun watching them either paddling furiously or bracing against the river bed while dipping their heads under water to feed. The water would sometimes roll up across their backs while they fought to stay in place. After watching this for a while, guess what I chose to have for dinner!

Preserved Defender

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My visit to the Army Flying Museum made reference to some of the exhibits having their own posts and this is one such post. As part of the recent refurbishment, they added a Britten Norman Defender to the collection. This was recently retired from service and was refurbished for display. Having grown up on the Isle of Wight, the Britten Norman Islander is a plane that I have a soft spot for. The Defender is the militarized version of the Islander and it has served in numerous roles around the world from the basic transport role to surveillance of those that don’t want to be seen.

This one is mounted in a dynamic pose which rather dominates the first display hangar. Things are rather tight in the space and definitely dark so trying to get some shots of it that I wanted was a little challenging. I did shot some panos to try and get more of it in than my lens would normally allow. There is a balcony around the upper level of the hangar and that provides a good vantage point on the Defender too. I was happy to get as much as I could of the airframe since I have had very few encounters with them while they were in service.

Mottisfont

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We got some good use out of our National Trust membership while we were over in the UK. One of our destinations was Mottisfont. I hadn’t been there before. There was the main house but, as is the norm for us, we actually didn’t go in that to look around. Instead, we wandered the grounds. I did take some photos of the house, of course, since we were there. It was a rather overcast day so a stone house with grey skies meant it wasn’t looking its best. The grounds were lovely, though. I shall post some shots from our wanderings in due course.

Missed One Chinook But Got Another

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During our day out in Portsmouth, we had lunch at a very nice pub by the harbor. We sat outside enjoying the various boats coming and going. I popped inside before leaving and, when I came back outside, Nancy had to inform me that, as soon as I went inside, three helicopters had flown by. There had been on Chinook with two smaller, unidentified, types flying formation with it. Needless to say, I was rather disappointed but such is life.

A while later, as we were walking along the sea wall at Southsea, the sound of rotors returned. The nice thing about Chinooks is that they don’t really sneak up on you. I had ample time to switch to a longer lens and set up the camera for something more appropriate for a helicopter (although the Chinook rotor rpm is so low, it still is not ideal). Sure enough, it came right towards us and flew through the harbor entrance and right by. A nice surprise. It then flew out to sea and I wondered whether it was going to return. Instead, it appeared to be hovering over one of the forts out in the Solent. That would have looked great from closer up.