B & W photo - # 76/2011

Study in black and white with four birds flying.

Muscat Moments 3 - # 117/10

I get the feeling that Oman might be a bird watcher's delight.  I don't know the name of this bird, but there are lots around.  They have an attractive song and flocks congregate where cafe terraces and hotel buffets provide plenty of scraps from the tables. This is a lively, good looking, attractive bird. Its feathers subtley change colour as they move across the body and this makes them very pleasant, welcome neighbours that please the eye, and a good subject for the wild life photographer - which I am not.

Diligent woodpecker - # 108/10

Our personal, locally based woodpecker has found out that he can also access the seeds in the feeder for the smaller birds.  The squirrels cannot get in, and it drives them crazy!

The Mandarins are back - # 86/10

We are still lurking around Ham Common Pond, because it's close and very attractive at this time.  This pair of Mandarins recently appeared.  A pair (most likely the same pair) have appeared for about three years running, but never stayed to make a nest. They obviously like the area but something isn't "just right".

See how the male is so magnificent and the female is relatively hard to see and so dull and well camoflaged.

I did not have a telephoto lens mounted, so the quality is a bit scratchy. I've cropped this and heavilly enlarged the fragment using Genuine Fractals.  The original was taken at 70mm (35mm equivalent) at f6.3 ISO800 1/30th sec on an Olympus 14-35mm f2.0.

The Seagull - # 09/56

Over the North Sea - 18th April 2009.

A walk around Richmond Park 5 - # 70

Pen Ponds are in the centre of the Park, and naturally fed by spring water. I could not resist showing two photos, both taken on the same day. I wanted to show how the sun and sky play on the pond and give magnificent natural effects. Brookville DP http://brookvilledailyphoto.blogspot.com/ and St. Margarets at Cliffe DP http://stmargaretsphotodiary.blogspot.com/ will appeciate the birds, but I cannot rise to their level of skill capturing them for you.