In A Flap

 

The other day I shared some pictures of Ducks and Swans. While I was trying to get some shots of the tufted duck a couple of young families came close by and started throwing food out for the ducks and it was lovely to see the children's excitement as the birds started to feed.

Their excitement changed to alarm when a flock of black headed gulls descended to join the party.

I have included the first few images just to show the mayhem however the last few pictures I think are quite nice as they capture the motion of the birds as they were either taking off or coming in to land in the hunt for a free meal.

Feed Me! Now!!!

 A few days ago I went to visit Sizergh Castle in Cumbria. It was an interesting day to be sure. I took some rather nice shots of the castle itself as well as some of the flowers and insects in the gardens. I also spent some time watching this group of hungry young swallows, lined up along the ridge of an old cottage, and their harassed parents trying to keep up with the constant demands for food.

For this series of shots I was on the wrong side of the building as I was shooting into the sun and so I will start by using that as an excuse for the images being less sharp than I had hoped, even shooting at 1/5000 sec. Nevertheless I think the series as a whole tells a nice story. There were a couple of families of birds lined up and each time an adult bird flew in all the young would cry out demanding to be fed next. Sometimes they would sit waiting but more often than not they would leap up into the air to get their parents' attention and snatch the tasty bugs from their beaks. The parent birds never settled down, each food exchange was done on the wing and as quickly as they flew in they would swoop off again in the hunt for more food.

Kicking Up A Storm

The storm in question... A Typhoon.

I recently travelled to Lincolnshire, where I once lived, with the intention to visit relatives, buy some sausages and to capture so images of the fast jets stationed at RAF Coningsby.

The trip was successful on all three counts, it was great to see family, the sausages are delicious and the jets were amazing. I will have lots of pictures of the jets in action to share over the next few days.

I had watched the Eurofighter Typhoon in these pictures do a fly past and land and in these pictures it is being readied for another flight. It was interesting to watch the ground crew going through the post flight and pre flight routines. I was also really pleased to capture a shot as another plane took off in the background as I think this makes for a dramatic image.