On Safari

 I recently shared a few similar images to the ones above but that was before I had a chance to edit them. I have only made very slight edits, mainly in terms of cropping the images where it was necessary and to make adjustments to the exposure.

I had watched a cormorant fishing and various other birds flying past but the black headed gull had clearly staked its claim over its territory in front of where I was sitting overlooking the lagoon. As another gull approached it would literally get into a flap and would noisily chase off any would be intruder. It was fun to watch and I thought the behaviour was quite strange too because at no point during the time I was watching did this bird catch anything to eat or pick at any scraps.

The lizard was one of several that I spotted in the hedge bordering the biennale gardens. This one had clearly found the perfect spot to soak up the afternoon sun. I was intrigued to note the texture and scaling on the tail was different to that on its body. I wondered whether this was due to it having grown back after shedding its tail in some previous conflict. Several of the other lizards I saw had similarly distinctive tails, so perhaps life for a lizard in Venice is full of hazard.

The egret was a real gem for me. I had been watching it sat on the railing of a pontoon about 20 metres away. I had imagined that if I tried to approach it to get a photo it would fly away and I did not want to disturb it. However, after some time I decided I would creep closer and see how it reacted, if appeared distressed I would leave it alone but if it remained calm I would take a few shots and then walk away. I could not believe my luck when it stayed settled, even when I was within about 4 metres from it. I am sure I could have got even closer had I wanted but it seemed neither fair nor necessary as I still managed to get some great shots.