Kicking off this year's odds and sods with Starlings in a rainbow on that extreme rarity: sunshine.
It was early morning, with the sun barely cresting the tree line. We were able to get out for our morning walk as it wasn't raining. This photo is my trusty Canon 80D and Sigma 18-300mm lens zoomed in at 300mm.
Pulling back a bit.
And finally all the way back.
Oh, 2024 got off to a good start with this.
So far my cat, perhaps two neighbouring cats visiting our garden, a local fox and Tawny owl, and this trap have accounted for at least five of the beasties. Sightings of rats in our garden are getting rarer, so I think I'm winning. Two rather timid and wary rats, that I know of, are proving more elusive to catch. I've resorted to buying a lethal trap. The trap was triggered, yesterday, but no rat, sadly. Though a mouse might have triggered it, and was small enough to be within the kill bar.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Oh dear you did have fun in the early hours!! At least you had a new kettle! Nice photos, looks like Mr Robin is away to do some conducting!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
No drama this morning! All electrics fully working. Old reserve kettle did its business without tripping any circuit breakers.
We inherited the faulty kettle from a relation. We should have known better to use it, but it did look quite new. Said relative was notorious for hoarding stuff. Not to the extent where their house was jammed full from floor to ceiling, with little crawl ways sculpted into the mounds.
Turns out the kettle had an intermittent leak, which would short the connecting plugs. It is going to the tip.
We pass through a golf course as part of our early morning 3 mile walk. This golf course has a bridge.
Two days ago, when the sun was shining (it's gone dreary again), we spotted a Grey Heron. Up came my camera in an attempt to photograph it. The resident Grey Heron is very wary, and took off when it spotted a camera, in the hands of the local paparazzi, pointed at it. All I got was a blurry image.
The Memsahib also watched the heron, but had a wider field of view.
"Is that a Kingfisher?" She says.
"Where?"
"On the bridge, to the right."
Blimey, it was! I had spotted a Kingfisher, some months prior, on one of the other tees which had a larger pond. Said Kingfisher flew, at speed, down a long straight section of footpath a head of us. If it is the same Kingfisher, then I reckon it has discovered a nice source of fish in the many ponds on the course. It may also have realised that the course is a fairly safe place, and may have worked out when humans aren't around.
I tried to photograph the thing with my medium lens, but it was just too far away. Most frustrating as we could see the thing diving off the bridge to catch fish. Luckily, we didn't live too far away. There was nothing for it, I had to leg it back home to swap lens. I huffed and puffed on my old legs back to where my old lady was watching the bird.
Too knackered to hold the long lens up and focus without wobbling (jogging in hiking boots with 3kg of camera equipment is not to be recommended), I found a convenient tree to rest me and the lens against.
Heavily cropped photos.
Sort of an abstract one, this. The silver thing is a fish in the Kingfisher's beak. The Kingfisher was swinging it's head to beat the poor fish to death.
Swing to the right.
Swing to the left and wop onto bridge hand rail.
Position fish for swallow.
Sadly, the weather turned all manky again. I didn't take my long lens, yesterday. Just as well as the Kingfisher was not on its perch. Hopefully it will stay, but the course does have a fair number of ponds, and there are a few streams around.
Nice spot Mrs Angus! I saw one outside work perched on a branch for about 5 seconds on Friday. Prior to that not seen one in ages... another reason (with demoiselles) to head to the river!!
Fabulous kingfisher photos Angus.
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Some more birdies.
Lovely selection
Well done, Mrs Angus M. Love the commentary lead up to and between the photos, which are lovely.
Under 2 seconds start to finish...
I didn't track it very well
Caught up
Last year I didn't get any Little Tern pics until all but two had left, so I thought I'd be more prompt this year
Good selection Mr Kes.