Night Flooding

Second attempt to take long exposure photographs of the flooded levels as the sun sets. Stood at the edge of the road, without stepping into the floods at my back, and took a series of 30 second exposures looking west along the tree-line of the flooded fields opposite. It's quite hard to select a position as the road is tightly bordered by floodwater, as with a causeway, and to stop in the road would block the route for other traffic so I have to find any slight width to pull over briefly.

I had talked earlier, about taking long exposure photographs ,with a number of journalists trying to find 'new' images of the floods as we stood photographing the fields beyond Greinton and the high point above 'Othery' overlooking the closed roads around 'Burrow Mump'.

Thrush Anvil

Out for a walk this morning around some of the local fields we came across this lovely example of a stone used by a Song Thrush Turdus philomelos as an anvil on which to smash snail shells. It was so colourful, and laid out so clearly the story of what had happened, it was like some sort of found artwork.

Flooded Fields - The West Country rain continues.

iPhotographing the fields alongside the Taunton road beyond Greylake, (panorama), before the road gets cut off towards Othery. Then this evening as the sun went down (6pm) I took some long exposure photos, as steadily as I could with a mono-pod, of the flooded fields alongside the back road over the levels beyond Pedwell, about 2 miles from our house. A beautiful landscape with the sounds of lapping water, roosting birds and the haunting calls of lapwings.

Somerset flooding continues.

Prince Charles on a trailer on a decorated bench, the head of the environment agency, various ministers and even David Cameron (v briefly) - have all been  down to see the Somerset levels this week to look at the floods and to be photographed looking at the floods...Talking to John and Charlotte, at the Kings Sedgemoor Equestrian Centre this morning, it was clear just how difficult many people are finding it. I was there, with other Ashcott Beer Fest volunteers, moving all of our stored equipment from one barn to another to make room for more horse stabling as so many people are flooded out and looking for dry places to look after their animals. They were talking about some owners rescuing their horses from belly deep floodwater and how other horse owners nationwide have been donating feed and straw to help those trying to cope. There are suggestions that some new areas of farmland are now being allowed to flood to take the depth away from other areas and certainly there is a lot of action at the end of the King's Sedgemoor drain in Bridgwater, with a large section of road cordoned off as the huge recently imported dutch pumps are getting lined up ready for action. (*See Lucy's photo out of the van window, above) The Lions Club are collecting for flood victims in the Sainsburys foyer, a member of Street Sub Aqua club scuba dived on the levels last weekend and this evening we watched kayakers paddling across the fields alongside the Taunton Road as we drove home. I took a couple of photos out of the car window of the levels looking south beneath Moorlinch with the low sun on the water, see beneath, a sight once common in this ancient landscape of island communities and raised wooden walkways.

The Amphibians are loving the wet weather.

Its raining every day, often all day, and much of this county seems to be underwater. The national press have got wind of it and the plight of those living in a shallow sea on the Somerset levels is now on the TV each evening, and quite rightly so. The county's amphibians are, I am sure, delighted with this state of affairs and I spent several fun hours with teachers and children in the school pond on Saturday, removing reed clumps. I didn't do this last year, not wishing to disturb the wildlife, but with all of the open water gone and the pond at risk of becoming a waterless bog garden I had arranged to carve up some of the plant growth and we pulled the heavy clumps onto the side of the bank to let creatures crawl back into the water. Stepping tentatively in the pond I used a net to move anything in the way to avoid injury to wildlife and the water was already bristling with spring activity. Newts were the dominant large creature, with some year old juveniles sporting gills, many smooth newts both males and gravid females and quite a number of beautiful male great crested newts. The size difference between the great crested and smooth newts is apparent in the photographs and it's so exciting to see so many of these wonderful rare creatures. There were also a number of young frogs and although a predictably small number of insect species, in January, there were water scorpions and dragonfly larvae. We carefully returned everything back to the water and left the pond with a variety of weed areas, planting and some open water predictably rippling under the impact of the falling rain.

Somerset Underwater

A poor phone camera image of the lands beneath the Polden Ridge to the South of our village beyond Greinton.

 Huge areas of the Somerset levels around us are again underwater. We're lucky to be safe up on Polden Ridge and although the Meare side of the village is a bit flooded, the Taunton side is underwater for miles and miles. The back road via Burrowbridge was underwater for weeks, less than a year ago, and my heart goes out to the house-owners and businesses that have been tidying up and rebuilding since. Muchelney is completely isolated and North Curry and other local villages now sit within a shallow sea of sunken cars and lines of pollarded willows that now define the hidden roads and field edges. In years past this landscape flooded regularly but with the drains and drainage of the last century we have all become used to a land of roads and houses, but with the recent wet winters the floodplaines have returned to their pattern of seasonal immersion and the huge expanse of flooded valley now stretches out beneath the low sun of a winter sky.

No Mammoth's today.

 A great family walk at East Runton on the hunt for mammoth teeth. All full of hope that we might find evidence of ice age mammals after the recent storms and tidal surges and after my lucky find of a tooth back in May when we camped here. The cliffs were clearly still on the move, with fresh falls of mud and rocks as we watched, and so any hope of exploring the recent rockfalls for treasure was abandoned and we contented ourselves with a search amongst the tideline pebbles and rockpools. With eyes to the ground we walked along the coast and picked up belemnites, the children returning with well over 150 by the time we got back the van and a warming cream tea in the wonderful Cliftonville Hotel along the coast in Cromer.