A Jay in the Garden

Although taken through a dirty window, this Jay stayed still for long enough.   I must go and check whether a small blue and black distinguishing feather has been dropped....

North Wales - 9 February - Bodnant formal garden

The Thursday was a quieter, and not so sunny a day, and I paid my first visit to the National Trust garden of Bodnant.   What a garden to enjoy throughout the year!   This posting covers the colour in the formal gardens.   The first photograph is of the iconic Laburnum archway without any sign of yellow as yet, just rows of very neat reef knots anticipating growth and restraint.

Birds on Menai Straits

A quick look from a hide at Pintail Ducks and a Little Egret before Bodnant Gardens.

North Wales 8 February

A few days staying on Anglesey and enjoying North Wales was a welcomed break.   On the Wednesday we left a car at the bottom of the Ogwen Valley and took our bikes up to Ogwen Cottage in the Joneses' van and cycled down using the 'old' road on the opposite side of the valley from the now main road.   I bought a new bike last year and it hadn't experienced any hills until this trip - something of a baptism!   The first three photographs were taken on the bike ride and the last two were taken from Anglesey, looking across the Menai Straits.   We cycled past plenty of discarded slate for which there doesn't appear to be a use.

Bottisham Lock

After the winds brought in on Storm Doris it was enjoyable to have a short, if breezy, walk this morning seeing some of the effects of spring emerging.   As always it is lovely to see a Kingfisher, spring flowers and summer plummages.   I am a bit of a sucker for dogs too!

Leaves on Fencing

Storm Doris is forecast to arrive tomorrow and already there are leaves blown against fencing at the Research Park.   Aristic folk could make a fabric design or wallpaper from something like this....

Beechwoods followed by Coffee

I haven't posted many monochromes recently and there were a few images taken in the Beechwoods which lent themselves to this treatment.   I then took a few photographs inside a coffee shop and may have taken 'table top' photography a bit too literally - after all the camera was just sitting on the table!   Am not being paid anything by Illy either.

Dog Walker

It was amusing to watch this dog and walker.   At the outset the dog was on the lead, but when he was taken off the lead, the dog clearly wanted something else to happen.   The walker then gave the dog its lead to carry but that still wasn't the full story.   The only way to make progress seemed to be to put the dog back on the lead - and off they went!

Birds at Lazy Otter

It was good to see at least three Great Crested Grebes this morning and in particular the antiques of this one.   Its whole head was turned through 180 degrees so that the top of its head was resting, very briefly, on the surface of the water.   Not sure I'd seen that behaviour before, and given there didn't appear to be another Grebe to witness this as a display, I'm not sure what purpose it served!

There was also a couple of what I think must have been Skylarks in hot pursuit of one another.....

Mute Swan Cygnet - 15 February

Starting to catch up a bit with postings.   I hope to get some images done from my trip to North Wales but will start with these close ups of a Mute Cygnet on The Cam   I love the colour range as more of the plummage acquires white.

Waxwings - Milton Road, Cambridge

A friend called round today and kindly told me of the Waxwings which have been feeding off berries and hips at the Milton Road end of the guided bus route.   It was a perfect light to see my first Waxwings and then get to see the challenges of photographing these birds.   If they are not flying around in flocks of up to 15, as on this occasion, they are seeking out food in thick thickets making photographs very 'busy'.   However, I'm thrilled to have seen them and thoroughly enjoyed an hour watching them feeding themselves, and on occasion offering food to another bird.   I can only assume this is part of the courtship ritual and delighted to have seen it.

Morning Coffee

I had a compact camera with me today and I'd rested it on the table in this coffee shop.   A quick look at the screen on the back of the camera indicated a photograph or two......   As I hadn't sought anyone's permission to take photographs, these are illicit really.   It has given me some thoughts though about taking more photographs to capture the cafe culture, and hopefully in this coffee shop in particular.   I'm attracted to the marked differential focus in these.

Morning Sky

As the other photographs to post today are of a very different nature from this one of the morning sky, it will have its own posting!   I've been more aware of vapour trails in the morning skies recently and assume they are what are intersecting in this photograph.