Great White (Egret not Shark)

 I had pretty much given up on my visit to Burton Mere yesterday. I had managed a few shots of geese in flight and I had watched a pair of Marsh Harriers flying off over the reed bed but there was not much else within range to photograph. To cap it all I twisted my ankle and had decided to call it a day.

On the walk back to the car park I stopped briefly at one of the screens where I had seen a Little Grebe and a Great White Egret before. The grebe was on show but with the sun directly in front of me all I could get was a silhouette. Then this egret flew down and started fishing close enough that I could get a few pictures. I watched as it caught several fish and I managed to get several good shots of it with wings extended, fish in its beak or just stood poised regally with one eye watching for its next catch. I actually took over 100 images while I was watching so it was a good end to what had otherwise been a disappointing trip.

The images above are variations on just one shot, the penultimate shot of the day.

Obviously the first one is rotated through 90 degrees and I have converted it to black and white. I have cropped it slightly to centre the image and I have added a slight vignette. I am always on the lookout for heart shapes in nature and when I took the original photo I knew that I would be able to create the above image and I am super happy with the result.

The other pictures are, as I say from the same shot, they have been given slightly different edits but apart from the change to black and white for one and the addition of the vignette there is very little change to the actual raw data.

Love Liverpool

 I have a little more time on my hands now and so there is a very good chance I will be getting out and about a lot more which can only be a good thing.

Earlier this week as the conditions were pretty good I decided to head into Liverpool for a couple of hours to see whether I could capture anything good. As you can see from the pictures above, the sky was crisp and clear, there was ice on the dock and a definite chill in the air (not quite the coldest day of the year but pretty close to it).

I firstly went down to the waterfront to photograph the architecture around the docks before heading back through town where I captured a few shots of people going about their business in the run up to Christmas, so I have a fair bit to work on and to share.

It is a while since I have been down to the waterfront and I had not realised how popular it has become for people to affix padlocks to the chain link fence around the docks. You can see from the above pictures that it has definitely become "a thing" here in Liverpool as it has in other cities all over. For the effect I think I like the locks in the third image as they go all along the riverside where I think the sheer volume of them has more impact. 

However, although there are currently fewer locks along the dockside fences they do create a fantastic frame for the buildings in the background. In these images the main building is the Museum of Liverpool which is itself a stunning building. I will be sharing some more shots of the museum in the coming days.

Fero da prora

This is such an iconic image from Venice.

The fero da prora is the ornament on the prow of the gondolas and as well as looking nice it is truly functional and the shape itself is symbolic.

The Fero is there to act as a counter balance to the gondolier who stands at the back of the gondola. That surprised me because it doesn't look that weighty but as it curves around the whole front of the boat it is more substantial than it appears at first glance.

A little research revealed that the S shape represents the Grand Canal that flows through the heart of the city, the six prongs facing forward represent the six districts of Venice while the prong pointing backwards apparently symbolises the island of Giudecca and the curved top represents the Doge's cap, while the inner curve at the top is said to symbolise the famous Rialto Bridge

In between the six prongs there are three additional items which represent the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.

So what I thought was just a nice ornament actually is so much more, I am glad I took a few moments to find out and hopefully you will appreciate that effort.  More importantly I hope you like this picture as much as I do

Spreading The Love

So it is Valentine's Day and in honour of that I am spreading the love with shot that I captured last week in Venice, well more precisely on one of the brightly coloured houses in Burano.

Love and Hugs XOX

Heart Of Stone

I received some unwelcome news today which has left me feeling flat and out of sorts. I know that other people have been having a tough time recently too and so I thought I would post this picture of one of nature's hearts to send out some love to everyone who needs it.

Courtship

Ok so I know this isn't the sharpest image but I was so pleased to capture this moment that I wanted to share it. It is after all undeniably cute.

I had been watching the bird on the right flying about collecting seeds and stuff and then noticed the other fly up to this high branch where the other bird joined it and offered tasty morsels of food. I was puzzled to see this as clearly the birds are both adults and anyway it is a little early for Blue Tits to be fledging. I wondered if perhaps the bird on the left was from an earlier brood but of course it is only April so again that would not explain this behaviour.

I spoke about this to a friend who regularly has Blue Tits nesting in their garden and they reported having recently witnessed similar behaviour so I decided to do a little research. I found an old research article which discusses this behaviour in detail and if your are interested it might be worth a look. 

It makes sense that while birds are nesting one adult bird will gather food and feed the partner who is sitting on the nest but here feeding behaviour away from the nest is part of the courtship rituals and is regarded as an important step in strengthening the bond between the adult birds. Perhaps it is the Tit version of taking your love out to a fancy restaurant.

Green Heart

Now that Valentine's Day is behind us here is one of nature's hearts without any sentimentality.

I love it.

Natures Hearts

So today is my 150th blog post and it's Valentine's Day and I thought I would spread some love by posting pictures of nature's hearts.

The first picture is of a message I wrote as a picture message while I was in Utah, the snow was piled high on a garden wall in Park City, I hope the  home owner  didn't object.

The second picture is a heart formed from sea spray which I captured on my mobile phone on a cliff top near St David's in Pembrokeshire.

The next two images are of pebbles collected whilst walking, and the final image is of a snow heart in Delamere Forest one winter's day.

I hope that you all feel the love x