View allAll Photos Tagged read
I had read about the new RSPB reserve opening and decided to take a look. It opened on the 25th of May. When we arrived there were only 2-3 cars. The visitor centre overlooked a lake, stunningly bleak view but with no birds to be seen. No birds and no people yet the RSPB staff and volunteers appeared were so cheery and optimistic. Once out onto the reserve and onto the hilltop you get a beautiful view of the reserve and hear the sound of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Blackcaps and Whitethroats. When you descend you see the birds and also hear them. I would recommend it as a place to visit. I was very impressed!
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/staidans/
St Aidan's is a perfect place to get close to nature and relax, unwind or exercise in a stress-free environment. Just outside Leeds on the banks of the River Aire, it's a big new space to walk, run, cycle, or ride your horse and enjoy the wildlife that surrounds you.
It has a wide range of wild plants and animals, and is home to thousands of birds, brown hares, roe deer, wild flowers and insects - all living in a stunning landscape of vast reedbeds, grassland, woodland, lakes, ponds and islands.
With a variety of circular paths of varying lengths and large areas of open grassland, St Aidan’s is a great place for families to enjoy the outdoors, share a picnic and play together.
Over 7.5 miles (12 km) of footpaths, bridleways and cycle routes connect the surrounding communities, with links to national footpath and cycle networks. St Aidan's is a fantastic place for locals wishing to explore the wider countryside or as a destination for people who love nature.
Opening times
St Aidan's is an open access site. Opening times apply to the visitor centre and car park. From March-October they're open from 9.30 am to 5 pm. From September-February it's 9.30 am to 4 pm. They're closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Entrance charges
Entry to the site is free but donations to help us continue our work are welcome. There is a car park charge of £2.50 per car for RSPB non-members. RSPB members and disabled badge holders park for free.
Information for dog owners
Dogs are allowed on the reserve as long as they are kept on a lead in the appropriate designated zones. There are some less sensitive areas within St Aidan's where dogs are allowed off the lead. Please check with staff before letting dogs off the lead.
Star species
Our star species are some of the most interesting birds you may see on your visit to the reserve.
Bittern
Bitterns are brown, secretive herons, camouflaged to hide amongst reeds. Visit in spring to hear male bitterns 'booming' or summer to watch the parents making feeding flights.
Great crested grebe
Watch the amazing courtship ritual of great crested grebes on the open water in spring. You may see pairs performing their 'weed dance' when they present one another with weed and patter across the surface of the water together.
Little owl
You may be lucky enough to find one of these compact owls perched in a tree or on a fencepost. They become very active at dusk and you may hear their shrill calls.
Marsh harrier
Look for marsh harriers gliding over the reedbed with their wings held upwards in a shallow 'v'. In spring, pairs perform their breathtaking 'skydancing' displays high in the sky.
Skylark
Spring visits will be enriched by the beautiful song of skylarks. They rise up into the air from the grassland until they are barely visible and only their song can be heard
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/staidans/seasonal_highli...
Seasonal highlights
Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.
Spring
Look out for marsh harriers displaying over the reedbeds, great crested grebes performing their elaborate courtship dances and returning swallows skimming low over the water and grasslands as they collect insects. Listen out for skylarks filling the air with their song, the deep booming of male bitterns, male snipe 'drumming' as they vibrate their tail feathers to attract females and lapwings calling as they perform their aerobatic displays. Enjoy the fusion of colour as wildflowers burst into bloom and a host of brightly-coloured butterflies and dragonflies take to the wing. Spring is also a great time to see kestrels. You can often see several hovering around the site at the same time as they hunt for voles in the grassland. Kestrels have also been seen nesting in the huge dragline.
Summer
Watch overhead for herons and little egrets dropping into the reeds to feed, female bitterns flying low over the reedbeds as they seek out food for their chicks or marsh harriers passing food to each other in flight. Keep an eye on the open water for lines of young ducklings paddling along behind their parents or young great crested grebes riding around on their parents' backs and admire the abundant lilypads on the lakes. Stoats, weasels and water voles are often seen at this time of year as are basking butterflies and dragonflies hawking the waters edge. Thousands of black-headed gulls set up a colony at this time of the year filling the air with their calls. Summer is the best time to spot the elusive black necked grebe as it will have its fluffy youngsters in tow. Avocets also nest at this time of year. St Aidan’s is a good place to spot this iconic bird that is the logo of the RSPB.
Autumn
Autumn sees the arrival of migrant birds, such as black-tailed godwits, ruffs and green sandpipers. Local birdwatchers will also spot a few rarities such as spoonbills and pectoral sandpipers. Huge flocks of lapwings arrive to spend winter with us and can be seen around pool edges and on grassland. Short-eared owls hunt over the reedbeds and our winter wildfowl begin to arrive. Look out for flashes of blue as kingfishers flit up and down the river.
Winter
Waders and wildfowl such as lapwings, curlews, wigeons, teals, shovelers and goldeneyes gather in big numbers, roosting and feeding across the grasslands and pools. Water rails can be spotted feeding on frozen pools, or you can listen out for their strange, pig-like squealing! The elusive bittern is also drawn out into the open at times. One of the most awesome spectacles in winter is seeing massive flocks of roosting birds panic and fly into the air as peregrines hunt over the site. Look and listen out for overwintering stonechats. Their calls sound like two pebbles being knocked together!
Facilities
Facilities
•Visitor centre
•Car park : There's a car park charge of £2.50 per car for RSPB non-members. RSPB members and disabled badge holders park for free. We have cycle parking and a height restriction of 2.7 m (8' 10'') for vehicles.
•Toilets
•Disabled toilets
•Baby-changing facilities
•Picnic area
•Group bookings accepted
•Guided walks available
•Good for walking
•Pushchair friendly
Nature trails
Bowers Bimble: Starting from the car park, this 0.9-mile (1.5 km) flat trail takes you on a short walk around Bowers Lake then through grassland and wild flower meadows. Great for a relaxing stroll (20-30 minutes).
Lowther Loop: For a walk through shady woodland glades and along the banks of the River Aire, venture onto this 1.3 mile (2 km) flat trail. In wet winter months, it’s a welly boot walk (60 minutes).
Hillside Hike: For stunning landscapes and panoramic views of the nature park and surrounding areas, t ake a hike onto the hillside. This trail is 1.3 miles (2 km) with some steep hills and inclines, which wind through the trees and grassland (40-60 minutes).
Reedbed Ramble: To explore the magic of the whispering reedbeds, take a walk on this 1.7-mile (2.8 km) flat route that runs around the edges of the reedbeds and loops back to the main entrance (40-45 minutes).
As the new custodians of St Aidan's, we are aiming to improve the accessibility of our paths as soon as we can. Please contact us for updates on footpath and bridleway conditions.
Refreshments available
•Hot drinks
•Cold drinks
•Snacks
•Confectionery
By train
The nearest train stations are Woodlesford (3.2 miles), Castleford (3.2 miles) and Garforth (4.3 miles). If you're going to be walking or cycling from the station to St Aidan's, choose Woodlesford station. Turn left out of the station then left onto the main road. When you get to the bridge over the Aire and Calder navigation, cross it, then turn right and walk along the riverbank until you reach St Aidan's. If you're going to take a taxi from the station to St Aidan's, head towards Castleford station as it's easier to get a taxi there.
By bus
The nearest bus stop is just outside the entrance to St Aidan’s, on Astley Lane. The Number 167 Leeds to Castleford bus stops here and is run by Arriva Yorkshire.
By road
Reach us from junction 46 of the M1. Follow the A63, signposted Selby and Garforth. At the roundabout, take the fourth left for Wakefield A642, Swillington and Oulton. Follow the A642 for 1.5 miles then turn left on to Astley Lane. St Aidan's is 1.8 miles on the right.
From Castleford, follow the A656 (Barnsdale Road) north out of the town centre for 1.4 miles. Turn left onto Station Road towards Allerton Bywater and travel 1.2 miles. Turn left onto the Leeds Road (next to the yellow corner shop). St Aidan’s is 0.5 miles along the road on the left.
Other ways to get to the reserve
It's easy to get to St Aidan's by bike. The site is bordered on its south-east edge by the Trans-Pennine Trail central section (Route 67). This runs north all the way to Leeds city centre, and south to join the main east-west route near our Old Moor nature reserve at Barnsley. There is also a local cycle route called the Linesway Greenway (Route 697) that runs between Garforth and Allerton Bywater with a spur at the Allerton Bywater end that links into the site. St Aidan's is also bordered by the Leeds Country Way. Maps of this route can be found on the Leeds City Council website. There are also many other local footpaths and bridleways that link into the site from the surrounding towns and villages.
The kit and its assembly:
This relatively simple build was triggered by the “In the navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in April/May 2020, even though I started it too late for the deadline.
After having recently read a lot of stuff about the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, I wondered if Argentina could not have procured a dedicated fighter for its single carrier – and the F-8 from US surplus stocks was a perfect candidate for the potential timeframe of the Seventies, when the type was retired from USN/USMC service or, in part, modernized and/or put up for sale, like the machines for the Philippines. The only real-world problem would have been the weight: the F-8E weighed up to 15 tons, while the Super Étendard, which was reportedly already hard to launch from Veinticinco de Mayo, had a MTOW of “only” 12 tons. Not certain if the F-8’s afterburner engine and the wings’ raised angle of incidence would have been enough to launch a Crusader? Well, it’s whifworld, after all. 😉
The basis is the Hasegawa F-8E, a kit that I had originally stashed away as a donor for a different project.
The model was built mostly OOB, I just sanded the dorsal avionics hump away and gave the machine a pair of drop tanks under the wings (from an A-4) – a rather unusual sight on a Crusader, and it looks even more weird with the wings in the raised position! The Sidewinders, relatively simple pieces, too, were taken OOB, since they look very much like early AIM-9Bs.
The kit goes together well, but it is a simple affair and you see the mold’s age. You get raised (though fine) panel lines, a rather simple cockpit tub with flat dashboards (for decals), a clumsy seat and no cockpit back wall at all. Fit is basically O.K., but the windscreen refused to fit well, and the hatch turned out to be somewhat too narrow for the rear bulkhead you are supposed to glue into it. Furthermore, the fuselage halves, especially on the underside, have shallow shrink areas close to the seams, so that PSR is mandatory. I would, not call the kit my first choice for the F-8 (which would rather be the Academy kit), but you get the Hasegawa kit at reasonable prices, and I originally purchased it as a body donor bank.
Since the kit lacks a proper air intake duct, sanding the fuselage halves inside of the respective orifice is not easy - I used a soft acrylic putty and left the radome away until the job was done. Furthermore, I added a visual blocker inside of the intake, a piece of black foamed styrene under the cockpit tub - otherwise you have direct sight down the empty interior in a head-on view.
Further small additions are some blade antennae on the hull and on the fin, inspired by the Argentinian Skyhawks.
Painting and markings:
Again, I wanted a rather subtle, semi-authentic look. The most natural choice would certainly have been a Light Gull Grey/White livery like the A-4Qs, but for a twist and because I like the late French F-8Ps in their all-over dark grey livery, I settled upon something that resembles the French/Argentinian Super Étendards: a dark, bluish-grey upper surface with white undersides and the upper colors well wrapped around the wings’ leading edges.
Concerning the French grey tone there are many different opinions and recommendations – ranging from Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231, which is IMHO much too light) over Gunship Grey (FS 36118) to dark blue.
I settled for Humbrol 79 (Blue Grey) as basic tone, which is AFAIK Humbrol’s interpretation of the German RAL 7012 (Basaltgrau), a tone that is very close to the British Dark Sea Grey. The undersides, including the landing gear, were painted with acrylic semi-gloss white from a rattle can. This was done as the first step, with a masked low waterline. Then the grey was applied by brush, and also wrapped around the wings’ leading edges. In order to improve the camouflage effect from above, the pylons as well as the outer sides of the stabilizers under the tail were painted in blue grey, too.
The flags on the rudder as well as the on the stabilizers were painted with white and Humbrol 48 (Mediterranean Blue), too, just the sun emblems on the fin are decals. Since the F-8 has, unlike the A-4 or the Sue, all-mowing stabilizers, I decided to paint the whole tail surface in white and blue and not just the trailing edge. This looks quite bright, but it is IMHO a great detail that sets this whif really apart and shows some pride.
The afterburner fairing was painted with a mix of Humbrol 27002 and 27003 (Polished Aluminum and Steel Metallizer) and later treated with graphite for a burnt look.
After an overall black ink wash the upper surfaces were treated with dry-brushed post shading (Humbrol 106 and 156). The decals come primarily from an Academy Super Étendard, augmented by markings from various decals from an Airfix Falklands War kit set sheet (e.g. the sun icons for the fin flash).
The silver leading edges of the wings, stabilizers and the fin were created with decal sheet material. the same material in black was used for walkway markings.
Decals come primarily from an Acedemy Super Étendard sheet, the tactical code was modified. Only the sun icons on the fin flash had to be procured from a different source (an Airfix A-4 Skyhawk sheet). The stencils come from the Hasegawa OOB sheet.
Finally, the kit received an all-over coat of matt acrlyic varnish.
My computer crashed & EVERYTHING is gone, so until i get a new one i'll have to put my 365 on hold :(
Im sorry i wont be able to be on anymore.
I'll still try to get on when i can and comment pictures.
See you guys soon
<3
P.s: Im sending out the pictures to my print exchange people this weekend :)
If you wanna exchange with me Fmail me.
Read more: www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en
This photo is free to use under Creative Commons licenses and must be credited: "© European Union 2016 - European Parliament".
(Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CreativeCommons licenses creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu
Read my full review of the "Ultra-Fast 50's" on the Leica M9 here:
www.digitalhapeman.com/Digital_Hapeman/Blog/Entries/2011/...
And here:
www.digitalhapeman.com/Digital_Hapeman/Blog/Entries/2010/...
So far i know how to outline, paint normally, and drybrush. Is there any other useful technique I can use ?
I guess an english class was here the night before. This is my math classroom.
I'm still trying to figure out the stick figures.
And yup, no clock watching in that class1
Click the "All Sizes" button above to read an article or to see the image clearly.
These scans come from my rather large magazine collection. Instead of filling my house with old moldy magazines, I scanned them (in most cases, photographed them) and filled a storage area with moldy magazines. Now they reside on an external harddrive. I thought others might appreciate these tidbits of forgotten history.
Please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts or impressions... Thanks in advance!
I haven't read books for a long time,internet used to be my main information source. But now I fond that there is so much useless information on the net and it is difficult focus my attention. After reading some books, i found that it is the really best way to get the information i need,
everyonde should learn some knowledge of economoics, so the book is one which I eager to read.
is a green book, everyone shoud pay attention on our environment.
Ok, reading and shooting.
不读书已经很多年了，获取信息的方式都是依靠网络，最近逐渐发现网络上冗余信息太多，而且很容易分散精力。而读了几本书，心里面静了很多，获取的知识理解的也比较深刻。于是最近狂买书，也尽量使自己耐心的去读。
先说《经济学原理》这一套，是我一直都想读的书，作为一个工科学生，我始终坚信：每个人都应该学习经济学。终于现在有机会也有点时间来真正的了解一下经济学到底是什么，希望这个寒假能感受一下经济学的魅力。
《杜拉拉升职记》是一本不错的书，但是感觉买书读就有点浪费了，在网络上随便读读就不错了。所以我决定将此书广泛借阅，榨取它所有的剩余价值：）
《没有我们的世界》是一部算是科幻小说的作品，评价不错，刚刚看了序，应该是一本不错的书。在豆瓣上有个豆列把它列为绿色书籍，跟环保有关。
ok，安心读书，学习摄影，我的生活。
Harriet the Spy was a childhood favorite - just wanted to read again
all books a good solid 4 of 5 stars
Klick Link For Read Online Or Download The 50 Most Terrifying Roller Coasters Ever Built Book : bit.ly/2hc1yXX
Synopsis
Mega roller coasters of today reach heights of over 400 feet and speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. Roller coasters towering taller than a certain height are terrifying for many individuals but it would be boring to simply make a list of the world’s tallest coasters. As a result, most of the bone-chilling machines in this list do not use sheer height to terrify, but instead prey on our fears and emotions in other, more creative ways. One element alone may not make a ride terrifying but the sum of all of its parts does. What factors make a roller coaster terrifying? Height, speed, inversions, backwards segments, unique track elements, darkness, and unexpected surprises all contribute to making your head spin and your knees tremble. Where are the most terrifying roller coasters found? Who designs them? Which park builds the craziest rides? Find ou
Read more at