St Albans - A Winter's Day

Photos of a visit to St Albans Abbey and park as the sun was going down on this cold and crisp day

 

 The low sun illuminating the windows in the Abbey.

Tree Silhouette



 

Iced over pond

 

Joggers silhouette



 

The abbey bathed in the golden light.



Magpie Rhyme

Family of Magpies in the tops of trees at Marsworth Reservoir, Tring

 

One for sorrow....

 

Two for joy....

 

Three for a girl...

 

Four for a boy....

Five for Silver.



Didn't see Gold.

Christmas Greetings

Church Lock Grove Buckinghhamshire and Puttenham Hertfordshire - Frozen Canal

Freezing morning during the clear and cold snap on the last day of November this year.   Two days of this weather had caused the canal to freeze overnight which gave me an opportunity to take some more photographs of the canal, initially at Church Lock at Grove, and a little later at Puttenham Hertfordshire (not to be confused with the Surrey village of that name).

 

The Grand Union Canal at Grove as the sun was beginning to break through the early morning mist.

 

Narrow boats at Puttenham...

 

....with narrow boats awaiting repair.

 

Frost on the cobweb at Grove.

Ice on the canal at Puttenham....



 

... with a Mute Swan finding the conditions challenging as it half slid and crawled to a small patch of open water next to a habitated narrow boat, hoping to be fed.

Finally I spotted these frosty leaves lying on the worn stones by the side of Church Lock.  Reminded me somewhat of Bugs Bunny



 

NW Scotland - Juvenile Great Northern Diver

For me, the Great Northern Diver gives me a particular excitement ever since I read Arthur Ransome's book "Great Northern" as a teenager in the 60's.  It was not until 1994 when I saw at great distance through my telescope my first Great Northern in Gruinard Bay.  This was an adult in full breeding plumage.

 

Since then I have had a couple of other sightings but never close enough to photograph adequately.  This summer in June I had a disappointment when I had taken some photos of a bird in the distance assuming it was a young Cormorant or Shag at Clashnessie Bay, only to discover when I downloaded them (and after making many checks in my various bird guides) that in fact the bird was a juvenile Great Northern.  I was quite annoyed that I had missed an opportunity to move closer to take at least some decent record photographs.

 

The following morning, imagine my joy when I took a short walk from the chalet I was staying at down to the rocks overlooking the sea when I saw a juvenile Great Northern fishing about 40yds from the shore.  Lying flat on the rock, I took a whole series of photos with my 600mm telephoto, including a shot with a fish that it had caught in a dive a few moments earlier.

The sun came out which now illuminated the dark red eye of the bird



 

In the next 10 minutes or so it gradually moved away, but I continued taking a further series of photos as the bird caught a fish and appeared to play with it letting it go and then catching it again. (heavily cropped photo)

Whilst I can't rule it out, I suspect that this was a different bird to the one I saw at Clashnessie Bay, it being some 20 miles away.  Sometimes I have been so lucky!

NW Scotland Achiltibuie - Rusting Anchors

Last set of photos from the grey day at Achiltibuie in June earlier this year.

 

This time it is the abandoned and rusting anchors on the shore to compliment the rusting buoys and rotting boats of the recent earlier posts.  I hope I have done these wonderful subjects justice!

 

All taken with my pocket camera so quality not quite as  high as I would have preferred.



Tring Reservoir Wilstone - Various

A few more photos from my walk around Wilstone Reservoir at the end of November.

 

Mute Swan with water frozen in time by a high shutter speed.

Oak tree and hedge in silhouette (I love the way this tree sits on the brow of a small hill - A retake of a photo taken about 4 or 5 years ago)



Autumn hedgerow colours - Sloe and Blackthorn with bright yellow lichen on the branches.



Tring Reservoir Wilstone - Swan Flight

Normally when I photograph swans in flight, they are at a distance or flying away from me. At the end of November on Wilstone Reservoir, I was lucky as a Mute Swan decided to take a short hop roughly in my direction across the line of the sun, giving me this series of action photographs.

 

Take off.

 

In Flight

 

Landing

Ashridge - Photoclub Photoshoot

Taking the dog for a walk in Ashridge on a warm afternoon I came across this young model posing with a classic American car for a group of photographers.

 

Broken down waiting for help.

 

 The actual scene without my crop.

A break between poses.



I hope they did not mind me taking advantage from afar of this opportunity 

Bedforshire Birds

Photographs of birds in taken in the bright light of  last week's cold days.

 

A kestrel sitting at the top of a tree....

...which flew off .



A redwing surveying the berries.



 

Starlings flying off....

 

....from their resting place.

NW Scotland Achiltibuie - Derelict & Decaying Boats

Back to Scotland and the beach at Achiltibuie this June on a grey day.

 

These timber boats have been left to rot on the beach.

A harsh monochrome treatment with high contrast



 

Beyond repair!



Bedfordshire - A Frosty Morning

Beautiful, if cold weather yesterday morning at the Grand Union Canal, Old Linslade.

A sparrow in amongst the Blackthorn.