Regal Eagle

 This is an African Fish Eagle, this species of eagle lives in Africa and feeds on fish, in case that needed clarification :)

Its range is across sub Saharan Africa wherever there are large bodies of open water. It is the national bird of Namibia and Zambia.

From the first picture as it launches itself from the tree it is quite deceptive in that this is a really large bird, with a wingspan of up to 2.8m (9 feet) it is incredible that it is so manoeuvrable is such a tight space. Once in flight it is agile and graceful and a really beautiful sight. At one point during the display it swooped between myself and my mum, its wings tucked in with mere millimetres from each of our heads.

At rest on a post having snacked on a dead chick it struck a fantastic pose and fixed me with an intense stare as I looked at it through my camera's lens.

My favourite images are the second and fourth. On the second one as well as converting it to black and white which works really well I have tried out the newest update to the masking tool in Adobe Lightroom, this is not something I have tried before and I am really happy with the result. It is now in my list of all time favourite pictures.

Hawthorn Sunset

On a recent short camping trip near Scorton in Lancashire I was fortunate with the weather and some excellent light during the evening. As I was watching the sun setting over Morecombe Bay  I noticed that this single sprig of Hawthorne was silhouetted beautifully against the sky and I couldn't resist getting the shot.

I snapped some similar images on my phone on the second night of the trip but this is by far the best. I hope that you like it as much as I do, it is one of my favourite shots for a while. I love the warm colours and the serene atmosphere.

Temptation

This picture, in black and white has a mysterious quality and does little to suggest the temptation mentioned in the title of today's post.

However when restored to its proper colour you can see...

... the bold yellow, so often a warning sign is used to great effect to attract and lure insects to its rich supply of pollen.

I love the contrast between these two images and I love the vibrancy of the yellow in the second image, it is my favourite colour after all.

A New Favourite

For my birthday I was given a 12 month membership for Chester Zoo and today I went to collect my membership card with my daughter and we popped in to take a few pictures (well it would have been rude not to). It was the end of the day and it rained really heavily so lots of visitors had left. It was nice and quiet and after the rain passed I was able to get good view of some of the animals.  Obviously we didn't get to see everything but there's no hurry, after all I have all year. 

I wanted to see my two favourite creatures, the Jaguar and the Red Pandas and I was lucky to see both but as we were looking for the exit we walked past these little critters, Dwarf Mongoose.  I have been to the zoo many times and I had never seen these before today, they have always been underground so it was a real treat. They are so flippin' cute and they have become one of my favourites. I hope you like them too.

With my zoo pass I will be visiting from time to time so be prepared for lots more animal pictures.  In the coming days I will share some of my other favourites from my brief visit today... enjoy!