Fenland Skies

Amazing skies yesterday afternoon from blue with characterful clouds to golden storm clouds, finishing with a full moon large on the horizon. Reflection colours and shapes caught my eye. A couple of owls hunting but not a lot of activity but couldn't resist the montage.

As the Light Fades

I stopped off on the way to Abington Club last night and took a few shots as the light faded. All shots are hand held as I didn't want to use a tripod in the town. The Mosque roof made an interesting foil to the moon and street light. It is right next door to a pub which had obviously seen a bit of trouble. The first two street shots below were taken while there was sufficient light to be able to balance natural and artifical light.
For the last shot where the natural light had gone, I closed up the aperture to F22 to prevent burn out on the lights and worked at maximum ISO (6400). I am impressed what a good job the noise reduction in the raw converter has done.

Remarkable December

Three images from Grantchester and a couple from Cambridge taken in December but looking more like October with the leaves still on the willows and the grass very green.

Yet More Owls

I think this might be becoming an obsession - another trip to view the Short-eared Owls. This time the light went quite quickly but gave some attractive dusk shots.

Owls at Sunset II

Three images taken as the sun went down and a collage of a squabble between two owls.

Owls at Sunset I

Once the wind dropped this afternoon, we went over to see if the Short-eared Owls would be flying and were rewarded with views of maybe up to 10 birds quartering the various parts of the Fen.

Windy Wicken

Very windy at the Fen yesterday - only one owl took to the air but it had such unusual light plumage that I have posted it anyway.

A Town Near You

Typical scenes from any town in England today. The poster in the first image sums it up - 'Will today be Your Lucky Day?' I didn't want to get too close to the guard dog in the last picture.

Brandon Marsh

I took a trip to Brandon Marsh near Coventry today in between lectures in Droitwich and Redditch. It was very dull light but suited the Cormorant and flight of Shovellers. A Kingfisher had been seen fairly regularly at one of the hides so I sat waiting for an hour or so. just as I thought I would give up it arrived and posed for photographs from all sides as well as a yawn or two, I missed the flight towards me however.

Short-eared Owls

Phil and I dusted off our long lenses and took a trip to Burwell Fen to look for the Short-eared Owl invasion that had been well publicised on the Bird internet sites. Sure enough we managed to see at least five different individuals; maybe more. The birds were all very different in coloration; I don't know if this relates to their breeding area as these birds have probably come here from a variety of summer habitats.They each seemed to hold a territory for hunting - two spent a lot of time squabbling or maybe just playing with each other and with some crows. The first shot shows Wicken Fen windpump in the background to give the location.

Santon Downham and Brandon

We visited Santon Downham St Helens area and Brandon Country Park on a beautiful warm Autumn day today. The beech trees still had their leaves and there were lots of spiders' webs strung between the branches. Not sure of about the woolly grey one but the Yellow spikes are the Yellow Stags Horn, the purple one, the Amethyst Deceiver, and the large balls are Earth Balls.