Two Up

Two Pictures
Two Species
Two Geese

Getting good shots of birds in flight is not easy and to be honest I wasn't really set up for these as I was taking pictures of swans swimming and smaller songbirds in the trees.  On each occasion the geese flying by took me by surprise and I would have preferred to use a faster shutter speed. All the same I am fairly happy with these shots of Canada Geese in the first image and Greylag Geese in the second.

Up With The Birds

Tamron 150 - 600mm f/5:6.3 

ISO 250   600mm   f/10   1/320 sec

I had pulled into a lay by for a short break on the drive from Amsterdam to Vejle (Denmark) and I hadn't intended to get my camera out at all, but as I got out of the car to put some rubbish into a bin I spotted a Great Spotted Woodpecker low down on the trunk of a tree. I grabbed my camera and approached as quietly as I could but before I could get a shot he had flown away. Disappointed I turned to go back to the car and saw this beautiful male Peregrine swoop past.  I managed to snap a couple of quick shots before he disappeared and although this isn't the sharpest of images I was pleased to get it. If you look closely you will see that this bird has been ringed.

Although I missed the woodpecker on this occasion I did manage to photograph one in Gothenburg a few days later so I will be sharing that one in a few days time.

Good deeds abound...

So this morning while out on a bike ride with my son we came across a large group of brightly clad cyclists ranging in age from about 10 to 110(not quite). As we approached they moved apart like the parting of the Red Sea to let us past. Just after we had passed one of the group called after us to see if we had an Allen key. Which as you can see from the first picture I did.  I was able help one of the young cyclists raise his seat so that the whole group could get under way.
Thanking me for my assistance one of the leaders of the group commented that normally they would have brought some tools with them but today no one had.  I then realised that this was a local scout troop out together.  Not one of them it seems live true to their motto.

The second of today's pictures is more in keeping with the general trend for my blog and shows a very unusual moth which was resting on a forest path.