The weather was good this past weekend
Ideal, therefore, for photography down at the lake.
Before any such indulgence, however, I bit the bullet and started clearing the demolished fencing from my driveway to take to the amenity site. I managed to fit about half of it in my car, so there will be another trip in the near future, but for now the usable width of the drive has been restored.
In the process I discovered three caterpillars that were around 2" in length, the kind that will grow up to be really large moths. Plus there were a couple more cocooned on the side of one section of fencing. I kept that section aside so they'd have a chance to grow and hatch before I dumped it.
And so to the lake. With Spring in the air and the flowers in full bloom it seemed a good time to play with the camera's macro settings and experiment with picture composition. Not that I'm much of a flower person, but flowers will at least stand still while you frame the shot, unlike the less obliging wildlife.
But the wildlife is still the main reason I go there; the water fowl are as close to obliging as I'm ever going to find. We have two clutches of coot chicks with a third still waiting to hatch. And two families of goslings; five younger ones which still look decidedly yellow, and three which I guess are a week or two older, and are noticeably greener and an inch or two larger. I sat a little way away from them and threw bread on the ground, but while they came for some of it they're not big or brave enough yet to actually mob me.
But the bread also attracted a rather large rat, which repeatedly sneaked through the undergrowth to snaffle some for itself. It came within about four feet of me, and as long as I stayed fairly still it would take one piece and eat it on the spot, then grab another and run off. So I got a few pics of that too.
But there were two moments which I didn't catch on camera. The first was when the rat decided to make a dash past the geese, but it got too close and one of the adults snapped forward and hissed at it, face to face only inches apart. It slammed on the brakes so hard it jumped up about a foot, turned in mid-air and raced to get away from them, hurdling the only obstacle in its way. Which happened to be my outstretched leg.
The other, farther round the lake, involved a robin pecking on the path ahead of me. I'd slowed down as I approached so as not to scare it, and I was about five yards away when it suddenly launched itself off the ground and flew straight at my head, beak wide open as if it were snarling at me. But about halfway toward me it swerved off into the bushes. I was so startled that it took me a couple of seconds to notice that a large insect which had been hovering in the air between us wasn't there anymore and realised what had just happened; the robin had taken it in mid-flight.
I'll put a gallery up shortly with some of the best pics. I would have done it quicker, but I pulled the last two months worth of photos off the camera on Sunday, and it came to about 700 photos. That meant a lot of sorting; I really need to do it more regularly.
And now I am listening to Wuthering Heights repeatedly to make sure I can lock into the time changes in the chorus for Saturday.
Before any such indulgence, however, I bit the bullet and started clearing the demolished fencing from my driveway to take to the amenity site. I managed to fit about half of it in my car, so there will be another trip in the near future, but for now the usable width of the drive has been restored.
In the process I discovered three caterpillars that were around 2" in length, the kind that will grow up to be really large moths. Plus there were a couple more cocooned on the side of one section of fencing. I kept that section aside so they'd have a chance to grow and hatch before I dumped it.
And so to the lake. With Spring in the air and the flowers in full bloom it seemed a good time to play with the camera's macro settings and experiment with picture composition. Not that I'm much of a flower person, but flowers will at least stand still while you frame the shot, unlike the less obliging wildlife.
But the wildlife is still the main reason I go there; the water fowl are as close to obliging as I'm ever going to find. We have two clutches of coot chicks with a third still waiting to hatch. And two families of goslings; five younger ones which still look decidedly yellow, and three which I guess are a week or two older, and are noticeably greener and an inch or two larger. I sat a little way away from them and threw bread on the ground, but while they came for some of it they're not big or brave enough yet to actually mob me.
But the bread also attracted a rather large rat, which repeatedly sneaked through the undergrowth to snaffle some for itself. It came within about four feet of me, and as long as I stayed fairly still it would take one piece and eat it on the spot, then grab another and run off. So I got a few pics of that too.
But there were two moments which I didn't catch on camera. The first was when the rat decided to make a dash past the geese, but it got too close and one of the adults snapped forward and hissed at it, face to face only inches apart. It slammed on the brakes so hard it jumped up about a foot, turned in mid-air and raced to get away from them, hurdling the only obstacle in its way. Which happened to be my outstretched leg.
The other, farther round the lake, involved a robin pecking on the path ahead of me. I'd slowed down as I approached so as not to scare it, and I was about five yards away when it suddenly launched itself off the ground and flew straight at my head, beak wide open as if it were snarling at me. But about halfway toward me it swerved off into the bushes. I was so startled that it took me a couple of seconds to notice that a large insect which had been hovering in the air between us wasn't there anymore and realised what had just happened; the robin had taken it in mid-flight.
I'll put a gallery up shortly with some of the best pics. I would have done it quicker, but I pulled the last two months worth of photos off the camera on Sunday, and it came to about 700 photos. That meant a lot of sorting; I really need to do it more regularly.
And now I am listening to Wuthering Heights repeatedly to make sure I can lock into the time changes in the chorus for Saturday.