Why leave the garden? It was another beautiful sunny day. Quite mild, and more time for getting on with the spring clear up. Not that it’s too much of a hardship with so much to see just by looking around. And there’s one big surprise at the end.
Overhead, several buzzards flew over late morning. The gulls chased them without ever really getting serious; just enough to shepherd the buzzards directly over the garden.
The gulls were rather more upset when a heron crossed the sky. They cleared a large passage for it, and by the sound of them were clearly not happy. It’s the first time I’ve seen a heron from the garden so although it was some distance away and the shot isn’t up to much, it’s here as part of the ongoing record.
A good part of the afternoon was spent removing weeds and leaves from the garden pond. It was somewhat neglected last year and was becoming a bit of a tangle. I clean it out by hand and spotted several newts (plus I inadvertently caught one, but quickly returned it to the water). The job’s only part done, but it does mean that tonight I was able to take this photo of one of the many newts.
Slightly off topic is this next shot. It was taken during the day but I’ve converted it to black and white. I had hoped to see a plane leave trails directly across the moon (I think I’ve got a shot like that from several years ago), but this will do.
The big (and very welcome) surprise comes towards the end of these video clips from the trail camera. Plenty of foxes, and a couple of badgers to enjoy.
Watch the video and you’ll know what I’m looking forward to seeing soon!
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens except the newt which was taken with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.
dW
10 Mar 2014A good day, Words! Kits soon, I hope …
I’ve never seen any friction between herons and gulls … maybe I was just there at the wrong time.
Words
10 Mar 2014dW, probably just concerned about an intruder and keeping it away. I have seen gulls dive-bombing a young heron down at the pond, though mostly they jog along ok together.
Darko
11 Mar 2014Aw, moon and airplane, an opportunity shot I was always hoping for 😀
Words
11 Mar 2014Darko, the opportunities crop up fairly frequently as a good number of aircraft fly over here heading to and from Europe.
Adele
12 Mar 2014Love the buzzards (and no long-legged buzzards to confuse the identification 😉 )
Words
13 Mar 2014Adele, thanks! They are indeed very easy to i.d. round here. Nothing else comes remotely near them for size.