The brief moment of summer weather lasted until early afternoon. It's back to the rain again for now. Fortunately, the unseasonal weather (by which I mean the sunshine) lasted long enough for a few photos down at the pond. I'll start with the early morning shots, which while not perfect are among my better attempts to photograph swallows as they skim the surface of the water in search of insects.
The rain held off through the lunch period, when I was back at the pond, showing a group of colleagues some of the local sights. Among the inevitable herring gulls I spotted one interloper: a great black backed gull. 
This bird is quite a bit larger than both the herring gulls and the lesser black-backed gull spotted on Tuesday. Size is one part of the identification. The other is the colour of the legs. The lesser variant has distinctive yellow legs. The great black-backed has flesh/pink legs. But you can only see the legs when it's out of the water….
As well as the wildlife, we also paused to look at the 13th century barn. It's quite impressive, but my eye caught a tiny figure high at the far end of the roof. I did not expect to see a squirrel up there… and I have a feeling neither did the squirrel! 
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
derWandersmann
15 Jun 2012The swallow (first pic) looks like a barn swallow … is it?
Nice shots of the gull … that's a powerful bird.
I'll bet that little guy had his claws dug in on the way up that roof … that's a steep pitch! There must have been a lady squirrel up at the ridge.
gdare
15 Jun 2012That gull looks like herring gull, if you didn't say I wouldn't have notice the difference :left:
serola
15 Jun 2012:eyes: Brave birds those swallows :up:
derWandersmann
15 Jun 2012Iko-Turso doesn't fit in that pond, Sami … they're perfectly safe.
claudeb
15 Jun 2012Camouflage: squirrels do it right!
Nice pics as usual. Catching things in motion must be quite a skill.
Words
16 Jun 2012Darko, you'd see the difference if they were side by side. The black wings, but also the size. It's much bigger than a herring gull.
Words
16 Jun 2012Sami, I don't know about brave, but they are incredibly accurate in their swoops.
Words
16 Jun 2012dW, yes it's a barn swallow, though we tend never to say anything other than 'swallow' to identify them here. The gull was a nice spot. I'm not sure what the squirrel was up to, but it didn't look very happy to be up there.
Words
16 Jun 2012Originally posted by derWandersmann:
LOL (post-googling)
Words
16 Jun 2012Felix, thanks. The squirrel was indeed how to spot. I think I was the only person who noticed it, but then I always look for movement. The gull was quite easy to capture in motion as I could see it was about to take off. Swallow are another matter entirely and those shots have a large slice of luck attached.
Words
16 Jun 2012Erwin, thanks!
SittingFox
18 Jun 2012That gull is massive – almost an albatross. Well, not really but they are definitely one of our most intimidating seabirds.
Words
20 Jun 2012Adele, I certainly wouldn't want to mess with that beak. Somewhere I've got some shots taken a while ago of a greater black-backed making short work of a large crab dinner.
Wulpen
19 Oct 2012Beautiful shots of all movements