Christmas Comes Early to Toft Wood

After a misty dawn, the dew-covered cobwebs in our local wood gave the appearance of tinsel. The pink Spindle berries looked extra good with a covering of cobweb. The photos were taken with a Sony Cybershot which has a lot of chromatic abberation especially at the edges of the lens, This gave some interesting macro shots of the dew drops.

Gannets

I needed an image to advertise a talk I am doing entitled Inspired by Nature and found this one from a trip over to Bass Rock. Obviously a composite but it is the feeling you get when the Gannets swoop in to get the fish thrown into the water from the boat.

King's College

I have visited Kings College a great many times taking visitors round the building and yet there are always corners or views that I missed on a previous visit.

I was attracted by the very varied 'furniture' that had been left in one corner of the Chapel.

The old glass on an inner window has beautiful soft colours echoed in the roof on the rather dull day on Tuesday.

Finally an image of quiet contemplation in a side chapel.

Barn Owl Take Off

Two shots of a Barn Owl getting airborn in beautiful evening light.

Dragon Boat Racing

A few pictures from the Dragon boat racing on the Cam yesterday. The crew featured here are the Viking Queens in case you couldn't guess!

It was a showery and blustery start to the day. This did not deter the participants but did result in a capsize
after one of the races. Visibility was very poor by then with the rain.

When a 300mm lens is too long

Photo courtesy of Pete Skinner at Shepreth Wildlife Park.

Leaf-cutter ants

Spent some time studying and photographing these leaf-cutter ants. They cut and carry the leaf pieces back to the nest as fodder for the fungi that then feed the young. I was intrigued by the presence on many of the leaf fragments of 'passenger' ants - always smaller than the ant carrying the leaf.

Update from Web

This is a known behaviour - the smaller ants climb on to guard the larger ant carrying the leaf

Saturday afternoon

Tynemouth Station hosts an indoor market every Saturday and Sunday - a wonderful miscellany of stalls.
A visit to Blyth beach with its Battle emplacement, beach huts and wind turbines was very enjoyable in warm September sunshine.

Toy Museum

Wonderful collection of Toys in this Museum on Tynemouth front. The owner was there to chat to and has been collecting toys into this museum for 20 years. Gave me a chance for a lot of nostalgia - even found some Bayko - my favourite toy as a kid.

Sunrise In Tynemouth

Some images of this morning's dawn at Tynemouth. The sky was completely clear at sunrise

giving beautiful colours in the sky and reflected on the water.

Cloud built up very shortly after the sun rose and produced som lovely colours in the sky

Evening Light at Tynemouth

A couple of images from a walk along the beach yesterday evening. The old sea bathing pool has been added to my collection!!

Off to Tynemouth

Off up to Tynemouth and not sure if I will have email so may be a few days gap in the Blog!

This Arctic Tern was shot in Northumberland two years ago in June but the sky is just as blue today

A Sunny Afternoon

On a warm sunny afternoon, the dragonfly pools beckoned and provided some fascinating subjects. The blue damselfly in the first image shared its twig with a spider, a red-eyed fly and a snail. The spider seemed more frightened by the damsefly than vice versa.
The Emerald Damselfly is a very attractive insect with a beautiful emerald green thorax.
The Red Darters were busy egg laying on the surface of the pond - I loved the silhouettes against the reflected sky.

Still Trying Flying Dragons and Damsels

I have borrowed a 300mm 2.8 lens as I have been wondering whether the faster lens would perform better than my 100-400mm lens when trying to follow flying dragonflies (anyway my 100-400 is away having the friction ring repaired). The answer is yes though, as it was mostly cloudy this afternoon, there weren't any dragonflies only a few damsels to fully test the theory.

Therfield Fields

Great sky today so took the infrared for a spin in Therfield area. Surprisingly few bales around even though many fields have been harvested. Still quite a lot of standing corn so will have another go next week

Foraging for Nectar

A couple of pictures from a walk round Wimpole walled garden today. The image of the bee covered in pollen is not very sharp - it was moving a bit quickly for my chosen shutterspeed but I wanted to share the image of the insect almost obliterated by pollen.