POTW 41 - Ringneck Parakeet

A few parakeets seemed to have moved into my nature park. I have seem them sporadically around here, but now they might be here to stay. They seem to live quite peacefully alongside a flock of pigeons.

Apparently the parakeets are multiplying quite quickly due to the mild winters down here in the south east and you have to wonder how much they will affect the native bird species.

Nevertheless, I love seeing them. They are beautiful birds and I was very glad to finally be able to get a good shot of one:

(Canon 20D + 70-300mm IS DO)

Foxes

Last Sunday I had some quality time with my local foxes. Just when I was about to leave I saw some and spend some quiet sit down time with them, from a respectable distance of course!

I was especially glad when the vixen turned up. I had not seen her for a little while and she looks like she is suckling little ones, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will get to see them at some point!

(Canon 20D + 70-300mm USM IS DO)

POTW 40 - Spider Pearls

I woke up and the sun was shining this morning, so I quickly got up and went outside in search of my foxes. I had to wait around for quite while, as they seemed to be quite lazy this morning. I noticed some spider webs and decided to concentrate on them for a while. I always carry my 60mm macro lens with me, cause it is so compact and light, so I put it on my camera and tried to focus on the dew drops on the spider web threads.

It’s so hard! The focus range is really narrow when you’re using a macro lens and the spider web was slightly swaying in the wind, which made focusing a right pain in the backside! None of shots I took came out quite as sharp as I wanted, but I will try again in the future for sure!

(Canon EOS 20D + EF-S 60mm F2.8 macro)

Snow Snow Beautiful Snow

The white stuff finally showed its face… in April! But I don’t care it’s late this year, at least it finally decided did! I overslept really. I had heard the forecast for snow, but when I looked out of the window at 7 this morning there wasn’t anything, so I went grumpily back to bed. When I got up at 9.30 (I slept in!) everything was white . So I hurried outside with my camera in search of some fox and other interesting wintery things to photograph. I did not do too badly, though I had the exposures slightly wrong in the snow - oops! I should have overexposed slightly because of the snow, but instead I did the opposite - silly me - however, it’s a mistake I will try and not make again!

The photos came out a little dark. Luckily they were not beyond salvation.

POTW 39 - Climbing Snowdon

At the weekend a bunch of us went off to Wales to climb Mt Snowdon. The weather forecast wasn’t good, but it was all planned so we went anyway. Already in the morning as we set off on the Rhyd Ddu path we saw the clouds covering Snowdon’s peak.

We had to abandon out attempt after we were already quite a way up, as hail, rain and gale force winds are no good for mountain climbing. At least it gives us an excuse to go back some other time and try again!

(Canon EOS 30D + EF-S 17-55mm F2.8)

POTW 38 - Ray Smile

We recently went to Holland for the weekend and spend a day in Blijdorp Zoo, in my opinion one of the best zoos I have been to. One of the big attractions there is the Oceanium. This little guy was in one of the tanks there. I thought it was so cute. I swear it was looking and smiling at me!

I will post some photos of our trip to Rotterdam zoo and our trip to Antwerp soon.

(Canon 20D + EF-S 60mm F2.8 macro)

POTW 37 - Little Crumble

I recently treated myself to a new lens - th EF-S 17-55 mm 2.8f IS USM, which I got off Ebay. I tried it out on my ratties. This one is of Crumble, who is quite a bit smaller than Moose. They are such little characters!

(Canon 20D + EF-S 17-55mm 2.8f)

POTW 36 - Another Fox

It has been a while since I have taken a decent photo - I have been pretty uninspired over the winter unfortunately… The few times I did go out I did not come back with anything useful. This morning I went out in search of fox, as I hadn’t manage to take any pictures of them since autumn. It was a lovely sunny morning, quite frosty too. And I was in luck - one was obliging enough to give me the opportunity to snap a few shots.

(Canon EOS 20D + 70-300mm IS DO)

POTW 35 - December Fog

I actually had not taken a photo in about three weeks I think. A few times I took my camera outside, but just wasn’t inspired. Maybe a touch of winter depression ;o)

Last Sunday it was quite misty out - I spent half the day thinking I should go outside and take pictures, but it took me until 3 in the afternoon to actually go and do it! I came back with few nice shots - this one is probably my favourite. It was fine in colour, but I prefer it in B&W:

(Canon 20D + Canon 28-105mm USM lens)

POTW 34 - Grey Heron

I went home to Holland last weekend. I had hoped to have some time to walk/cycle around the area and take some lovely photos, but the weather did not agree - it was miserable pretty much all weekend. I finally ventured out when I went for a walk with my mum. It was cold and blustery, but really quite ok. We caught a little rain, but not too much.

I took very few photos, but this is my favourite. I don’t see herons actually standing in the water that often, so I am really happy to have caught this one:

(Canon EOS 20D + 70-300 USM IS DO)