{"id":2539,"date":"2013-03-04T23:03:54","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T23:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2539"},"modified":"2013-11-02T15:14:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T15:14:52","slug":"a-brief-glimpse-of-spring-and-buzzard-up-close-at-falmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/a-brief-glimpse-of-spring-and-buzzard-up-close-at-falmer\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief Glimpse of Spring (and buzzard up close at Falmer)"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

After the dreadful year we had in 2012 I'm not going to hold my breath for a sustained spell of good weather (plus the forecast is for rain later this week), but today at least spring arrived in the South Downs. To be fair it was a frosty start, though these two ducks were anything but frosty.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

The day came into its own at lunchtime. These were taken on the fringes of the South Downs National Park, across local farmland.<\/p>\n

New born lambs out in the fields…
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Sheep grazing…
<\/span> <\/p>\n

A flock of linnets were enjoying the warmer air.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

And overhead, a buzzard cruised the skies.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

Beautiful, but all of which pales into nothing with my final sighting of the day. I was leaving work where the car park edges on to woodland. I took a peek and watched as a sparrowhawk swooped low through the trees. It beat the camera, but more to the point it escaped the buzzard close on its tail. The sparrowhawk vanished into the distance, but the buzzard, having cleared the patch of intruders, took to a tree.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Far from perfect shots and I completely missed the action, but simply watching the raptors chase through the trees was quite something.
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
\"site<\/a>
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,980,1043,1041,1004],"tags":[179,1160,223,860,135],"class_list":["post-2539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-farming-2","category-sheep-wildlife","category-south-downs-national-park-landscape-2","tag-buzzard","tag-duck","tag-lambs","tag-linnet","tag-sheep","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t