Picture(s) of the day....

[CitroJim]

As this is my 52,000th post on this forum, it seemed nicely appropriate to post a picture of my all-time favourite diesel locomotive, the British Rail Class 52 'Western' on my favourite preserved railway, the West Somerset...

Wikipedia Commons

Both these locomotives and the railway played a significant role in my childhood... Many hours were spent at the bottom of my grandparent's garden watching these magnificent machines roar past at 100mph on the mainline between Taunton and Westbury... The line was about ten feet away from the garden fence so I got a true grandstand view...

The West Somerset Railway, between its BR closure and re-opening as a heritage railway was my summer playground I watched the last BR train on the line in 1971 and the first steam train run under preservation in 1976...

[Vic Evans]

As this is my 52,000th post on this forum,

Blimey! That's about 7 posts per day for almost 20 years.
Must deserve some sort of recognition

[mickthemaverick]

With more productive use of 7 posts a day you could have erected a 58 mile long fence!!

[CitroJim]

With more productive use of 7 posts a day you could have erected a 58 mile long fence!!

[CitroJim]

Be afraid, very afraid...

She's discovered coffee

[CitroJim]

Out with little one yesterday and whilst feeding the ducks - something she absolutely loves to do - we spotted a gull, one that did not look like the usual gulls you see on an inland lake.

Little one loves birds and is already good at identifying them. This one initially defied all attempts to identify it, with even Apple's phone AI failing!

More in-depth research suggests it may be a Bonaparte's Gull, a rare visitor to the UK and more normally seen in the chillier bits of North America...

Identification was a complicated by the fact this bird wears two distinct plumages: a breeding one and a non-breeding one. This one is dressed in the latter...

We were at the Harrold Country Park in Bedfordshire, in case any forum twicthers wish to go see it. The gull looked to be very at home and well settled in for a good stay.

[Gibbo2286]

The neighbour behind my house has a bird table, every day there are dozens of seagulls fighting for the goodies she puts out.

[myglaren]

I used to put stuff out for small birds but the seagulls, pigeons and crows don't give them a chance and spread s**t all over.
Rethinking that one.

[mickthemaverick]

Use seed feeders hanging up Steve, the pigeons don't bother with them here

[myglaren]

Tried that and the small birds hardly bothered either.

[Huskyxantia]

So this morning , picture the scene. Nice crisp bright chilly day clear blue sky, just getting in the car i looked up to see a massive passenger jet plane flying over , it was an air Singapore plane , then I noticed a flash , a small round bright ball following this plane then it changed direction 90° & moved very slowly in an westerly direction, I went back in to the house grabbed my camera & got these shots. Not very good as this thing was very high, much higher than the plane was & moving slower than the space station, any way this thing was first going East then went west , as I said 90° turn ??

[mickthemaverick]

Probably Scott Tracy in Thunderbird 1 looking for the pothole site to talk Thunderbird 2 in for the repairs!!

[CitroJim]

That'll have been the 'plane flushing its loo...

Seriously, this is a bit of an intrigue...

[Gibbo2286]

I must clean my computer screen, seeing things that ain't there.

[CitroJim]

You'll have no trouble seeing this Eric

A recently fallen tree I saw during a stroll around Salcey Forest today....

And I saw my running partner there