Last Posting in 2016

This happens to be the first photograph I took this morning but will serve its purpose as a concluding image for the year.

Beechwoods - New Year's Eve

Although the weather conditions and time of day weren't helping to create great images, I couldn't resist taking more photographs of these Beech Trees.   And now I look forward to keeping a photographic record of their cycle throughout the coming year.

I'm not going to check to see how many, if any, of these colour images are the same as, or similar to, those I've taken earlier - so here are today's photographs.

Frost and Fog - Research Park II

Other than trees to be photographed this morning there were geese feeding and flying, a Snipe (which eluded a good capture) and frosted vegetation, including just two more trees.   It was a morning for counting one's photographic blessings!

Frost and Fog - Research Park

Some mornings I don't find many images for posting but today was different.   The temperature must have been below freezing all the way round the fields and the colour tone of the images was dramatically different depending on whether the photograph was taken towards the sun or away from it.   The fog gave a lot of atmosphere and kept the vibrancy of colour to a minimum.   Just one monochrome although many of the images could be printed in black and white.

This posting will be focusing (sorry about the pun) on the fog and trees while the next one will include other things which caught my attention.   The fourth image is the one in monochrome - in case it can't be detected!

These next images have a warmer tone to them and several include the sun rising.   I would be hard pushed to choose just one of these images.   Perhaps five of them would make a panel - but which one to leave out?

The Cam - 27 December

I loved the very new moon in the first image and the sunrise made even a pylon worthy of capture!  

There was enough movement in the water to create swirling images of colour reflected from a linear cloud.   Perhaps it was the cloud striking through the pylon. 

Frosty Morning - Tubney Fen

I had hoped to have seen Short Eared Owls yesterday morning but it was much too cold and frosty for them to have put in an appearance - I shall know that for another time.   Instead there were up to five Roe Deer foraging for vegetation that wasn't too frozen to eat.

There was also fog lying low at times, and without anything to eat, this Kestrel sat on a post for a long while - perhaps waiting for the sun to provide some warmth.    Such was the intensity of the frost, that mammalian hair on barbed wire was difficult to identify - Highland cattle, Roe Deer, Konik Pony?

Short Eared Owls at Tubney Fen

I'd been told by a F/friend that there were plenty of Short Eared Owls to see at Tubney Fen.   The mornings are the time when I get out and went to the Fen this morning.  It was much too cold for anything to be on the wing on this very frosty morning.   A later posting will show just how frosty it was!   I was able to return to the Fen this afternoon though when Owls were about.   The most interesting images were of two Owls in combat but I'm not sure what they were fighting about.   Using a combination of magnification I hadn't used before means there's plenty to learn and practise!   However, for a first attempt I was pleased.   These photographs show how well camouflaged the Owls are amongst reed beds - with the naked eye and from the sensor.

Christmas Eve Morning

With family arriving on Christmas Eve afternoon there was plenty to do in preparation, so the morning walk with Boo was close to home (Mere Way near Sunclose Farm) and short.   Just one image kept from that walk.

All the frames for the poly tunnels are exposed now and make for repeating patterns which need quite a lot more attention to capture pictorially than I had that day.

Drive back from Wisbech, via Welney

We went to Wisbech this afternoon and came back via Welney.   These photographs of the sunset were taken on the road between Welney and Pymore - from the bank of the Hundred Foot Washes, except for the first image which was from the roadside near Welney village.    I don't know how different the quality of the light is between sunrises and sunsets, but they have been spectacular this winter and don't seem repetitive to me.   The cloudscape was wonderful at times but it wasn't possible to stop the car on some of these fen roads to take photographs.

Bait's Bite Lock

It was a cold, sunny morning and the strength of the blue and green colours was quite marked.   There wasn't any wind either (although Storm Barbara is on its way to challenge some parts of the UK).   I was expecting to want to convert some of the images to monochrome - managed just one - but the blues in the photographs were so striking and have dominated this posting.   The tracery of the trees was wonderful.