Most of these were taken on Saturday, but were put to one side in favour of the garden time lapse sequence and sunset. I’d been down to the local recycling centre (with most of the wood from the pergola I took down a few weeks ago. The short trip takes me past Sheepcote Valley, which is one of my favourite spots for kestrel watching. I was in luck… almost.
That was about the only usable shot I managed. As I was moving across the valley for a decent angle, two corvids (a crow and a magpie) decided they wanted to share that particular tree. Why they chose that one and not any of the many around it I don’t know, but the kestrel objected to their company and flew off over to the far side of the ridge.
I contented myself with looking to see what else was a round, and was rewarded with this pretty little pied wagtail reflected in a pool of water. The pool is temporary. It was actually nothing more than a large puddle on a gravel path, but the wagtail seemed to like it.
Today was misty, so not many opportunities to go out. The only sighting of note was a buzzard over the garden being mobbed by the local herring gulls. Generally just one or two gulls will pick on the raptor, but with breeding season around the corner the gulls are taking this all a little bit more seriously. These shots are all cropped beyond anything sensible.
Finally to round things off, one more picture of Saturday’s glorious sunset.
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
Darko
10 Mar 2015A lot of nice sunsets 🙂
I was watching gulls chasing away a bald eagle on Sunday afternoon. Persistent and loud as they usually are 😀
Words
11 Mar 2015Darko, I like watching how the gulls operate when they mob a raptor. This time they were working as a group to chase it off. One or two take the led, but together they give the bird no choice about which direction to go. Smart.
Darko
14 Mar 2015That’s exactly what happened here, too. But I think the crows are even more rough. Few months ago, I made a photograph with a crow sitting on a same tree with a bald eagle. They are not afraid of them at all 😛
https://www.flickr.com/photos/9694803@N02/15606282510/in/set-72157638567738354
Words
15 Mar 2015Nice capture. Crows can be brutal, and are a real menace to young lambs. I once asked a farmer about the local buzzards, and he said no problem. Crows on the other hand cost him several lambs by going for their eyes when they’re sleeping 😯