Flight of the Bittern

Bitterns are secretive, solitary marsh birds known for their stealthy hunting, cryptic camouflage and distinctive booming calls. Bittern sightings at Paxton Pits are not common so I was delighted when this one decided to take off and fly close to the water looking like a Sea Eagle! Not great quality to the photos but happy with the sequence as it flew along the lake edge. The final entry shows the entire flight. 

Kingfisher Sequence

The young kingfishers are definitely improving in their fishing techniques - here one caught a fish (we heard the 'plop' but it was just hidden where it entered the water). 'He' brought the fish speared on the beak a low branch to bang it and then swallow it with some difficulty - definitely looks a little uncomfortable in subsequent frame. He then decided time for a wash which I could frame up before he returned to the higher branch and flew off.

Trumpington Flowers and Fungi

I joined Iain Webb's monthly walk at Trumpington Meadows Nature Reserve yesterday looking at October's wildlife. Here a record of the fungi and flowers that we found - I am always interested to record the state of the wildlife to compare with previous and future years. Certainly the recent rain has encouraged some fungi to emerge and lots of plants have sprung up in previously completely arid areas and are now flowering. Insects generally low but looks like the Dandelion heads are supplying nectar etc to surviving insects. Very unusual low rainbow appeared during the morning heralding some welcome afternoon rain.

Photography Workshop at Toft

Cambridge Camera Club run a couple of Table-top Workshops each year with a variety of projects including using a scanner to get black background images. This year, we returned to constructing and using a pinhole - either with a spare lens cap as here or an extension tube. The smallest and most central hole gives the best result - I had a couple of attempts before managing a very fine needle prick and this gave very good result. I always find it incredible that such a detailed image can be produced with no lens, just a very fine hole! We had the Drop machine working - I didn't get a go this time. Otherwise it was lots of table-top projects as shown here plus oil and water trays and black reflective tile etc