Estonia Independence Day - The Tanks Invade

I had failed to note that 24 February is the national day of Estonia, marking its declaration of freedom in 1918 after centuries of foreign occupation. So on our first evening in Tallinn, the tanks invaded the street right outside our room and continued their rehearsal until quite late. On the 24th lots of the Museums and Art galleries etc that we planned to visit were closed so a different experience watching the celebrations.

Tallinn - What No Snow!

We booked a couple of days in Tallin hoping for some snowy images but not this year - they have had no snow for over a month. However, the city still looks very beautiful even without the snow cover of previous years

Final Views from Antigua

Here are a final few views at night from Antigua. The first two are very long exposures (30 seconds iso800 f 2.8) on the resort beach taken in complete darkness other than the illumination from a patrolling police car with red and blue flashing lights. The remainder are taken around 15 seconds iso800 f5.6 around the resort.

 

Antigua - Herons and Egrets

A resume of the Heron and Egret species that we photographed during our 10 days in Antigua. Species shown were Green Heron, Black-Crowned Night Heron, Great White Egret, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, Tricoloured Heron, Great Blue Heron

 

 

Antigua - Hummingbirds

Although back for just over a week now, I haven't got to the end of sorting the last 2 days of the trip but decided, rather than doing a retrospective diary, I would concentrate on species/groups. So, here, an overview of my remaining Hummingbird attempts - not fully edited nor all the images(!) but a selection to show their charm and difficulty in photographing with good postures and clear backgrounds. The first 6 the Antillean Crested Hummingbird and the last 4, the Green Throated Carib.

 

 

Welney WWT Faces Up to Storm Dennis

 I was very disappointed that I was not able to show off the delights of Welney in good light and pleasant working conditions to the Nature Group members, who came from many parts of the country to visit Welney WWT on Saturday, many taking part in the Swans Awake and Hares events. Here a few higher key images of the ducks and swans braving the wind and waves. The Little Egret made three attemps to cross the open water before finally making it. The swans, being a lot heavier, managed to navigate the open water but still often made several attempts to land.