This time of year the puffins on Skomer are busy feeding the young pufflings preparing them to head off into the Atlantic before returning again next spring.
As well as the iconic portrait pictures of these beautiful birde I hoped to capture shots of the birds coming in to land and especially with beaks full of sand eels.
While they are quite curious little birds and on the ground they don't rush off to hide they are small and super quick in the air and capturing good shots in flight is incredibly difficult. I haven't looked through all my shots yet so I don't know whether I have anything better than these. I love the first pose and it is so sharp. The second is less sharp unfortunately but I love the motion that is captured in the shot as the bird comes in to land. What you cant see from this shot is just how necessary it is to be precise but there is a sheer cliff behind the bird and so the landing is always going to be precarious. The other thing is how do the find the right spot every time. These birds nest in burrows and in the dry conditions with very few obvious landmarks so it seems to me that it's a minor miracle that they find the right burrow every time.
So the culmination of our stacking efforts last weekend was this stone arch. It took a couple of attempts to get it right and the construction was a real team effort but it was the first time we had tried to build an arch so I was very pleased with the result.
I have taken pictures from slightly different angles and from both sides to try and get the best image. In the final picture you can see the tree from yesterdays shots reaching across the river with the two small stacks balanced on it. I have deliberately used the depth of field to keep the background just out of focus so that the eye is drawn to the arch in the foreground.
I really like all of today's pictures; I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite. All of them are good reminders of a great day out with my kids, moments to treasure.
Here are a few shots taken along the High Bowkerstead Trail in Grizedale Forest. I think the theme that joins all these pictures together would be "holding on".
The first shot of the last remaining section of dry stone wall along part of the trail. It leans precariously and seems like it could fall down the steep bank at any time.
The second and fourth pictures show some of the bright foliage still clinging tenaciously to the branches when so many of the trees around are almost completely bare of leaves. I love the brilliant yellow and in the final shot I love the contrast of the lime green leaves and the dark of the trunk and branches.
The third picture of the raindrop clinging tightly to the bud on the end of its twig was quite a challenge. The wind constantly moving the branches threatened to dislodge the droplet at any moment, it also made it hugely difficult to get the reflected trees in focus so I am quite pleased with the result.
