Not a lot happened - but it happened suddenly

Well again its been a while, things happen, time passes and work happens, days goes by.

 Its still dark-ish and coldish, we saw an eclipse – missed the Northern, a bit southern, Lights, shame that.

The beer I made is very drinkable but will benefit and improve further from another few weeks given its strength if it gets the chance. 

Been to Cosmeston, a few more bird shots. A Wren, this one is very much work in progress, not happy with it but a big step up from previous attempts.

The Jays are still proving to be shy – so far this is the best but I intend to get better – time and patience will tell

The Coal Tit was not happy, they are very nervous of the bigger tits and the Nuthatch was busy nicking all the sunflower seeds. 

Not to mention the big grey ones eating anything and everything !

At this point there were two Nuthatches going for the seeds and this one was not happy about it.

I am going for more ‘in habitat’ shots 

We can all recognise the Blue Tit and the Great Tit

Even Magpies are less than co-operative here, top of the trees so far is all I get

Done better with the Great Crested Grebes this time around

The Dog Violets are out and the ‘prunus’ trees are in flower, the ferns are starting up again, love the way you can see the cell walls in the strands

A few reminders of the last autumn are still about like this Cow Parsley seed head and a mixed message from the dog rose, last year – this year

In all been a nice couple of weeks moving into a real spring, now for summer to deliver !

Its been a month .... so I guess I had better do something!

Blimey, its been nearly a month, ah well time flies when you are having fun, so not sure where the last 4 weeks have gone!

Anyway, what have I been doing, well I finally got a beer on – I was looking to make a mid range IPA with a single hop and a single malt, so much for plans – dual hops and dual malt – came out at 7.5%abv. I decided to call it Hodge Podge IPA. It has not cleared down as quickly as the others, but I suspect that is the Windsor yeast. I moved it into the bottle last week and it needs two weeks in the house to bottle condition then two weeks in the garage to chill and finish the condition – then at that strength it will need at least another month to start to mature to be a reasonable drink, I doubt it will last that long, after all you have to sample it don’t you ?

We have been to Cosmeston a few times so a few pictures below, no particular order just some nice ones I like and feel worth showing to anyone who wants to look.

I have joined the local Camera Club, after 25 years or so thought I may as well. I used to be in the St Athan club when it was based on the camp and have now joined the Vale photographic Club, http://www.vale-photographic-club.co.uk/about.html 

I was pleasantly surprised to see Cled and Pam Lewis there – they were members of St Athan while I was there as well so a nice link for me to my past photography and really nice to catch up with them

It does mean I have to consider prints and competitions on themes, I am not sure how many I will enter but its good to look at my photography from a formal club perspective and gain outside review critique.

Anyway, a few pictures as I said

I like Gulls, bags of attitude and great to photograph in flight

 Everybody loved a Blue Tit, these guys were really happy to come in close for food 

This was a bit of a nice surprise - a female Reed Bunting out in the open and not skulking in the reeds

 

The gulls cruise around the edges of the reedbeds, I assume it is to ambush coots or ducks to steal food, early morning mist makes it very ethereal

Another early shot - the crow at the top of the tree makes the shot for me

 I called this one 'Opposites Attract' I like the soft feather against the harsh spines of the Teasel, and it just had to be back lit, well didnt it ?

One for fun - titled 'Okay own up, who hid the nuts?'

This fella is a really great little bird, a Nuthatch, he was determined to get his share of the peanuts

All the above were taken at Cosmeston, this however is Aberthaw beach, the sunset was good and there is nearly always a fisherman for foreground / mid ground interest

 My latest Theme is 'Dereliction' I have a few shots for this, I am playing with it in colour instead of the expected Black & White, this is a old abandonded aircraft Hangar door - even the grafitti is derelict !

An old building - single story that has been derelict for a while 

 

 

 A local pub / diner that has been closed for a long time and is now the subject of a lot of vandalism, just liked the new look to the brickwork but the clear dereliction on the window and door and the missing letters above the door

 And last but not least - a door. It looks like it is old, tired and well worn. Hmm sounds familiar.

Thats it for now hope you like them or at least find them worth a comment

A day at Slimbridge

We decided as it was going to be a nice day we would have a day out, just the two of us to WWT Slimbridge.

While sitting in the café having a coffee and a cake a stray thought came to my mind, yes reader, a thought. It found its way around the dusty chamber  of my skull and by total chance hit a point that caused a spark and woke a slumbering, well, I wont say giant, but you get the idea!

There have been many changes in our society that have influenced people and made us not only more aware of our impact on our environment but crucially has also made us more aware of our responsibility and the need to act, if only by becoming a member of wildlife trusts, charities etc. to support others that are willing to actually - Do something!

Our impact is not only but here at home but on far flung shores. The end result of our profligate expansion with a near suicidal rush to ever grow as a species with little or no thought to the rest of the environment, and the impact that this has on domestic as well as world populations of creatures that we share the planet with, is clear to those willing to look. 

One change has been the development of the digital camera. 

I recall shooting film, it was expensive and slow in the sense that you had to take the picture, up to 36 frames per roll of film at a up front price, then process the film and then print the pictures. You did not know if you had taken a good picture until you saw the negative/slide/print. You went to visit Slimbridge, you were inspired to take photographs of the Flamingoes, you went home, you sent the film off, with money,  you got the prints back and lo the bird had moved, you focused wrong / exposed wrong/ etc.  out of those 36 expensive prints you had 1 that was ‘okay’.

Today, with the glory of digital technology you take the photos of the Flamingo, check the image on your camera screen  and take another till you get what you want, by the time you go home you have all the great images you can take in a day on your memory card and when you get home you can print them as and when you want. Everyone is a wildlife photographer. Mind you not saying it makes you a good photographer, the best camera in the world does not take the best picture, it’s the photographer that does that.

So, this brings me back to my errant thought. 

Given that I always want a ‘better’ picture  of xxxx or that the subjects change week on week as more migrants come in or more chicks are hatched or the light is better as it was overcast and next week its sunny or the……, you get the picture? (pun intended).  So, I go back on regular occasions and so we are trust members so as to feed my hunger for the shot and to be fair to help assuage my ‘guilt’ for my  part in the impact we as humans have on these creatures who have no say in it. 

Just how much have charities like the WWT benefitted from the technology advances of Digital cameras? You can’t turn around there for people with DSLRs, Bridge cameras, Ipads, phone cameras all taking pictures. I believe that they and other charities can offer thanks to this revolution of photography as a serious boost to their income. And long may it go on.

Of course the up side of all this, apart from more support for wildlife is the fact that I can put my hand on my heart and say "that new camera I want is a bargain", after all see how cheap shots are compared to film so it pays for itself really – honest.

Any way here are a few I took, not good enough so I will have to go back again, just to get that ‘killer’ shot I thought I had got this time, but now on the computer screen I see it is good but not good enought …….

 Iconic shot, the observation tower with greylag geese inbound

 Sir Peter, its all his great work and he is the reason there are still Nene, Hawaiian Geese, in the world !

There is always one out of step !

Of course our local wildlife love the area as well, loads of food for them with everyone feeding the geese, ducks etc - this is the kind of thing he may well have been looking for

A common Bank Vole

Cant go there and not photograph a Flamin Bingo !

A Greylag Goose, one of many 

A male Goldeneye, bet you can work out how it gots its name !

A pair of drake Smews having a 'conversation' avout a lady Smew, it got a bit intense and fast after this !

Of course the habitat is important and a lot of grasses with seedheads feature around the site, love the low sun through them

Feathers, its all in the detail even shed they are waterproof for a long time

No surprise the Corvid families are present in numbers, I do like Jackdaws

Ahh, the exotics, Male Mandarin Duck, whos a pretty boy then ?

Less exotic and more relaxed, Tufted Ducks

Okay, its cheesey and been done to death but when it presents itself - ya have to take it !

And then the sun started to depart and the birds started heading to roost

So we did the same - back to the car and headed home after a good day with a few good photos, ah but, are they good enought, nope -

Oh dear, going to have to go back and take this one again - its not as sharp as I want it, guess thats another trip to justify the annual membership, well it gets cheaper per trip each time we go so its a bargain really, honest!

Back to Uni

As it’s the start of the year we had to take our youngest back to University for the new term. She is in Falmouth University doing Natural History Photography.

So fathers taxi road trip. Given the other things we had to do and the Paddington hard stare from the bank manager it was a Bilbo Baggins trip, ‘there and back again’ in one day a mere 240 miles each way, no bother.

Clearly leaving Wales to go to Cornwall is a wrench – yeah right! but given the rain was starting in the west and heading east and we would be going from ‘east’ ish to west the hope was we would run through it and out the other side to a nice afternoon in sunny Cornwall, well it sort of worked.

The decision was taken on arrival around St Austell to make a side run to the Eden Project. A firm favourite of ours, and have lunch and a photo session there for a few hrs.

For the first time in 10 years the waterfall was not working - the night before they had a major pipe failure and were getting a digger in to access the pipe for repairs, it was a bit strange as the tropical dome was very quiet - you dont realise how much the sound of the waterfall is part of the dome until its not there.

A few of my attempts at capturing the wildlife in Eden. Of course if you look there is always fungi as well.

 

This growing on the side of a Banana ‘tree trunk’. Hmm,  as a Banana plant is a herb, can it be called a tree and have a trunk ? 

These were growing on deadwood up near the waterfall – a large patch of them

This is a tendril of one of the prolific plants that grow to give ground cover and climb up anything

There are tiny ants everywhere - the lizards and frogs love them, I liked the pattern of the colours on this banana leaf and the few ants make a interesting addition

 

 And we found a couple of lizards 

 A bit of a colour cast as 'he' was under leaves in a small area but thats how it looked to the eye

Finally, thanks to Verity remembering a conversation on a previous visit - a tree frog – he was shy but smiling

 So thats it youngest back at Uni for a few months - have fun !