After yet another successful year on the Odds & Sods thread, initially started I think by Hazy, it might be wise to kickstart the 2023 thread off.
Thank you to those who have contributed to last years thread, and there has been very interesting odds and sods in "Odds & Sods 2022" that aren't enough to place into a dedicated thread, which you can look back on the following link:
https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/278729/odds-sods-2022/1417300?pifragment-4285=76#pifragment-4285=1
What better for me, and as yet, I've not ventured far, ewe know what I mean, with this lassie on Baddesley Clinton estate yesterday....
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
Got to make the most of a short window of opportunity. After a dismal start, with people commenting on the lack of dragonflies, they suddenly appear. They will soon disappear just as suddenly.
These dragonflies were hanging around the Manor farm restoration.
This dragonfly was darting (dare I say) next to the Blackwater valley footpath I was on. It didn't stay still for long, on the rare occasions it did hover. Mostly, photography was a question of pointing camera in approximate direction of dragonfly and hoping for the best.
This is basically what I was up against.
I was lucky this time. Cropping out the beastie
This was more normal, where I actually managed to get the thing in frame.
When the thing was against sky, matters got a little better. Both cropped heavily.
Every now and again, one stops for a breather.
Demoiselles were more accommodating, generally. This time I got one in profile, as opposed to head on.
It flew off, but then came back!
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Nice to see them catching a bit of sun Linda ... . Well captured ... .
I've found that with damselflies Angus, after flying off, they often come back to the same spot. So it's worth waiting a minute or so to see ...
Morning folks.
Glad you all liked the dragonflies and demoiselles. Now for something completely different.
We might all have seen a squirrel running across overhead cables. I always thought they ran along them, paw-over-paw (as it were), always keeping three paws in contact with the cable.
Well, as this sequence of photos show, they bound across when in a hurry. Photographed at end of our morning walk, with my Canon 80D and medium lens; 'cause I'm not lugging my heavy long lens around on our morning walk.