Scenes from a Cycle Ride

Another windy day for the cycle ride and on this occasion different shaped straw bales.

My bike likes to appear in the photographs if only to show the scale of the objects around it.
These straw bales weigh around 6 cwt. No chance of picking these up with the old fashioned two pronged hay fork.


Straw, an agricultural by-product or using even more modern terminology a "carbon-neutral energy source" is used in many ways now. This is odd however, as it was only some 20 years ago (before regulations prevented it) straw and stubble was just burnt in the field where it lay. It has many uses such as biofuels, biomass, livestock bedding, animal feed, thatching, packaging and horticulture. In fact I watched a TV programme the other day where it formed the integral part of the walls of a new house.


A little hump-back bridge that I frequently pass over.


"Time waits for no man". This field has now been ploughed already after being harvested a few days ago.


Gulls enjoy this time of year following the plough or disc harrow.


The Kingfisher's beat.
As I came to a halt on this bridge a Kingfisher darted off into the tree on the right of this photograph. I regularly observe one in this area, but have not been able to photograph it as yet.


With the strong winds we are experiencing at the moment, it produces some really good cloud formations.




That reminds me, I must take a big plastic bag the next time I go out this way and fill it full of blackberries.{:)


I stopped to say 'Hello' to this Mare and her offspring.



Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris)
This lovely flower adds some colour to the hedgerow along with the Haw berries. The Common Mallow grows to a height of 1.5mtr and the flower head is 25-40mm across. It flowers from June to October.

A Windy Walk

The weather forecast for today was quite promising with the chance of some blue sky and good sunlight.
Unfortunately, I missed the bit about the strong winds, but soon found out about them when I decided to walk around the Parkland. Constant wind speed of around 25 to 30 mph does little to enhance the prospects of a good day of birding and nature photography at this time of year. Small birds have more sense and tend to hide away in the dense leaf cover. Geese don't fly unless they have to and butterflies are non existent in such conditions. There are no unusual duck to observe and many of the wild flowers are over by now.

The best plan was to walk in the lieu of tree or hedge line and look for places that are out of the wind and perhaps receive the direct sunlight. I conducted observations at one such spot where I had been advised by a fellow birder that a Redstart had been seen the previous day. No such luck I am afraid and not even when I returned to the spot later.

You will note that due to the strong winds, the sky changed from almost clear to overcast and this repeated several times in the space of two hours.

In the absence of anything else I have posted below some views on the particular walk that I did.
(All of these were taken with a 17-85 mm lens, set either at 17mm or 50mm.)

This first view is usually a good place to observe Swallows or Common Terns flying to and fro.


In the reeds below I have often monitored a Reed Warbler pair, but have never really got a good enough image to post in the past.


Grey Heron lurk along this waters edge, but were nowhere to be seen here.


Canada and Greylag Geese overfly this spot regularly.


I have observed Snipe in this grass meadow and Grey Heron often sit out in the sun. Not much chance of that for a while now as the meadow has been cut for hay.



This below was the nearest thing to a Deer (do I mean Deere) that I observe.


This is normally a really good spot to watch Common Tern diving, Swallows low flying and Reed Warblers in the far bank. If you are really fortunate a Kingfisher.


I have previously photographed Wrens in the undergrowth at this point on this side of the river.


Little Grebe can often be seen on the edge of the water along this stretch of river and back under the bridge I am standing on. Not today though.



The boat that you can see in the distance was really struggling to stay in a straight line along this river, It was zig-zagging all the way up this stretch, such was the strength of the wind.


If nothing else, I was able to re-acquaint myself with the lens that I had not used for a while.

Images from the Previous Week

Some unused images collected from the previous week.

In monochrome, a patch of Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense) going to seed.


A dead Teasel head.


Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) Perennial
Grows to a height of 50cm in damp ground especially along the side of paths.


This was one of a small group of immature Common Terns conducting flying practice around the edge of a lake.


A Green-veined White (female).


An immature Black-headed Gull hanging out in the sun on a small rock on the edge of a lake.


The folded wings of a Red Admiral Butterfly. They are not that colourful on top at the moment.

Green Woodpecker

This was one of those occasions when I decided to go out walking with a 70-200mm lens attached to the camera instead of 100-400mm lens. Its often the case unfortunately that I chose the wrong lens.

This male Green Woodpecker was bobbing about the long grass looking for food so I took a few shots and hoped for the best, They are heavily cropped to achieve this result.

A Frame Filler

I didnt need a long lens or do any cropping to capture these images as the subjects are plenty big enough to fill the frame anyway.

These are two Charolais cows and a Charolais bull.



From what I could observe the cows were either giving the bull a hard time or he was just "playing hard to get".

He did give me a woeful look though.

Barley Harvesting

We have certainly had enough moisture to swell the grain recently and now with the fine weather the farmers can get out and harvest the Barley.

Inflight Dragons

The outdoor sport of photographing dragonflies in flight can be quite interesting, not to mention frustrating.

They are creatures of habit to a point and will fly around their territory. If you observe them long enough they tend to hover repetitively at certain points. That's where to 'ping' them.

The subject below was a Migrant Hawker. I was using a 70-200mm lens, anything longer would restrict your view (too narrow a field of view), anything shorter and you will not get close enough to the subject.

I set the camera on a fast (sports) setting to stop the subject in flight and I used a repeat shutter action. I switched the lens to manual focus. If you practise on a point at a similar distance to where the subject hovers and set the manual focus to that point that will assist you. Then practise focussing in and out from that point. Finally then try some shots on the subject when it hovers.

1/800 at f4. - 200mm. ISO400.

1/1000 at f4. - 200mm. ISO400.

1/800 at f4. - 200mm. ISO400.