The Aran Ridge and Gorgeous Goldfinchs

I sometimes forget that my blog is titled 'WalksnWildlife' and I get so concentrated on my wildlife photography that I forget to get our walks posted as well, so for this post there are a few shots from our recent walk up onto the Aran Ridge in North Wales. I have been up here a couple of times with Sharon and haven't seen the view, the first time it was just grim and cloudy, the second was a complete white out as you can see below, but on my third visit we finally got to see the magnificent views. Sharon had done it previously as well and hadn't seen the views, it wasn't a brilliant day weather wise but the cloud lifted over the tops as we climbed and gave us rather hazy views across to Arenig Fawr and Snowdonia beyond, and down to Cadair Idris.

A real white out last time we were up there in the winter



Sharon and Holly on Aran Benllyn



Our route across to Aran Fawddwy



taking in the views at last!



we assumed this lovely looking Cairn marked the view across to Aran Fawddwy



Cadair Idris beyond the top of Aran Fawddwy





Looking back to Aran Benllyn



Holly the water dog in action








Arenig Fawr



looking down our route off towards Llyn Tegid

All in all it was a lovely walk, mind any walk is when I'm with Sharon, but we both really enjoyed seeing the views off the Aran Ridge at long last.

On a completely different note, one of my favourite birds is the Goldfinch, I have been fortunate over the years to have photographed lots of them and have been lucky enough to have them visit my garden frequently. Sharon moved to her new house earlier this year and her garden was relatively bird free, being quite feature less it was going to be a task to get them to visit, but they were about in neighbouring gardens and flying over. But over time we have introduced feeders and dug a pond, and the birds are really starting to visit, and she regularly gets all the common garden birds visiting. But it was obvious there were Goldfinch about as their distinctive song could be heard , so I got some Niger seed and after a short while the odd one started to visit, and over the last few weeks she is getting lots visiting each day. She is absolutely thrilled, and is on a mission to paint each species of bird that visits her garden, you can see her superb work on her blog HERE

one of her first visitors below that Sharon photographed from her window




And a couple of my favourite Goldfinch shots below