Happy New Year to one and all. Let's hope 2021 sees some sort of return to normal as the weeks and months roll on

Running annually since 2013, this is the 9th photography thread. Thanks to everyone who has participated and made this such a popular and long-running thread. I'm sure we can look forward to lots of great contributions.

Given the restrictions we've been facing for so long now, getting out and about hasn't always been easy or even possible. But, with a bit of good fortune hopefully we'll get opportunities to revisit new and familiar places with greater ease. Certainly I've hardly been beyond my immediate environment during much of last year, so I'm opening this thread with a couple of favourite photos from some years back.

Both were taken in Elie on the Fife coast in Scotland.

 

Happy snapping, everyone!

While I was putting my camera gear away in the boot of the car a Male  Chaffinch was sat on my front door and pecking at his reflection in my wing mirror. Obviously thought there was another male in his territory. And there was bird poo all over my gleaming , newly polished and gloss finished car.  This picture was taken with my mobile phone 

 

Edited April 17, 20214 yr by Winsford Soul

2 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

While I was putting my camera gear away in the boot of the car a Male  Chaffinch was sat on my front door and pecking at his reflection in my wing mirror.  This picture was taken with my mobile phone 

 

Steve 

 

that is so cool , nice pic 😊 

3 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Managed a couple of pictures this morning of a male Northern Wheater . The harsh light does not do the colours justice and they will have to be classed as record shots for now. While i was attempting to take the pictures a Brown Hare run across the field ,which i just managed to see and grab a picture . Again sorry about the quality.

When i was walking back round Elton returning to the car i noticed this female Pike weighing about 18LB basking in the sunshine. I had no filters or polariser with me to cut out the glare for the picture ,then further along the bank there where two more . Unbelievable 

 

 

 

Steve , northern wheater , never seen one , great to see something new

thanks  

17 minutes ago, Neil Austin said:

Steve , northern wheater , never seen one , great to see something new

thanks  

Thanks Neil.  They are a summer visitor to the UK and like Swallows spend the winter in Africa.  They are stunning birds and the colours are amazing,  just wish I could have done them justice.  They spend the summer predominantly in the West of the UK and breed on coasts as well as upland moors. 

Edited April 17, 20214 yr by Winsford Soul

This guy joined me today while I was sunbathing for a dip and to take in some rays , about 2 foot away from where I was sat lazing in the sun. 

 

Managed a trip out to snowdonia on thursday, first time in the mountains for about 8 months and what a epic day. A very leisurely 10 mile trek in sunny, windless and very quiet conditions, perfect 🌞

Looks Stuning Andy. Not sure i could manage those  ascents these days with my asthma.

Peak District. Crowden up to Laddow rocks last year for the Bearded Vulture was a tough one and thats nothing like where you was mate. I did have big camera gear , food , drinks , clothes so without camera gear may be ok taking it real easy. Lol

 

10 minutes ago, Winsford Soul said:

Looks Stuning Andy. Not sure i could manage those  ascents these days with my asthma.

Peak District. Crowden up to Laddow rocks last year for the Bearded Vulture was a tough one and thats nothing like where you was mate. I did have big camera gear , food , drinks , clothes so without camera gear may be ok taking it real easy. Lol

 

It was just over 10 miles in 10 hours as i kept stopping for a rest 😁 10 miles around flat cheshire/trafford is a breeze in a few hours. Glad to be out again.  The photos are off my phone which is good for landscapes. Scotland in 3 weeks 🌞👍

11 minutes ago, Soulandy said:

It was just over 10 miles in 10 hours as i kept stopping for a rest 😁 10 miles around flat cheshire/trafford is a breeze in a few hours. Glad to be out again.  The photos are off my phone which is good for landscapes. Scotland in 3 weeks 🌞👍

Scotland mate. Where you heading  ? Only six weeks to Pembrokeshire.  You still going Narberth mate  ? 

2 minutes ago, Winsford Soul said:

Scotland mate. Where you heading  ? Only six weeks to Pembrokeshire.  You still going Narberth mate  ? 

Plockton in a lodge and yes Narberth is still on 👍

4 minutes ago, Soulandy said:

Plockton in a lodge and yes Narberth is still on 👍

Bloody hell Andy. Thats a good way up, just checked where it was. Inverness  and Mallaig  furthest i,ve been 

 

9 hours ago, Soulandy said:

Plockton in a lodge

Lovely area Andy, I stayed in Plockton about 15 yrs ago, my former neighbours were Scottish and her parents had a holiday home just above the Loch. We had a memorable night in the Plockton Inn with local musicians playing being joined by young people from if memory serves me right a nearby music school. Cheated just looked it up and for once my memory did serve,   Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd (National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music) at Plockton High School Highland.

    

50 minutes ago, Twoshoes said:

Lovely area Andy, I stayed in Plockton about 15 yrs ago, my former neighbours were Scottish and her parents had a holiday home just above the Loch. We had a memorable night in the Plockton Inn with local musicians playing being joined by young people from if memory serves me right a nearby music school. Cheated just looked it up and for once my memory did serve,   Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd (National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music) at Plockton High School Highland.

    

Yes it's a great area. We stayed there in  May 2013 in glorious weather and visited the Inn a couple of times and were treated to random music. Looking forward to it despite any restrictions 👍

Mum and 15 ducklings

Believe it or not, these are tulips....

First trip out somewhere for absolutely ages. Went to the Dutch seaside town of Scheveningen on what was a lovely afternoon. Had fish and chips and a stroll along the beach.

Not too many people there, which was great. Just tonight the Dutch government announced the end of curfew and the opening up of Café/bar terraces - that’s after close to seven months.

It’s a start, and hopefully means we can get out and about a bit more. A few pics from our afternoon out...

 

Had quite a morning with a variety of birds. Residents, Summer visitors and Winter visitors, Aerial battles.

Song Thrush and a female Blackbird that thinks its a Ring Ouzel

Sand Martin , Swallow

Fieldfare with a Wheatear 

Lapwing with a Raven

Willow Warbler 

Like the blue and red one on the barbed wire, he's a handsome devil! Steve I think your like Dr Doolittle, creatures seem to follow you! lol

Edited April 21, 20214 yr by Mal C

21 minutes ago, Mal C said:

Like the blue and red one on the barbed wire, he's a handsome devil! Steve I think your like Dr Doolittle, creatures seem to follow you! lol

Thanks mate 👍. I love Swallows the epitome of the English summer  .Two hours walking around with the camera and lens.  I wish they would come to see me instead of the other way around.  

English Bluebells

 

Edited April 22, 20214 yr by Winsford Soul

Bit of a mixed bag this morning at Elton

No Lesser Whitethroat ,

Heard two Grasshopper Warbler reeling but no sightings

Female Wheatear

Lapwing chick

Roe Deer 

Common Whitethroat

And about 50 Swift passed over screaming and managed a quick picture of one before they carried on there journey.

Greenshank. this is the most heavily cropped of the pictures as the bird was actually on the far bank of the reservoir from where i was maybe 400 metres away  

All the pictures are heavily cropped as they where quite distant apart from the  Common Whitethroat

 

Edited April 25, 20214 yr by Winsford Soul

Only had a landscape lens on the camera today so had to take this with the phone, my first Dipper sighting this year.

1 minute ago, Chalky said:

Only had a landscape lens on the camera today so had to take this with the phone, my first Dipper sighting this year.

Nice one Karl. 👍

19 minutes ago, Winsford Soul said:

Nice one Karl. 👍

Its the first time one has sat still long enough and no bloody decent lens 🙄

 

I pulled my calf muscle badly on Thursday and its still pretty sore so I initially thought I'd do the gentle walk round Loweswater today (4 miles).

I'd finished by 12.30 and hadn't stretched the muscle out so I went on to Ennerdale and invented a walk up over the back of Bowness Knotts (a big spiky bit with the spectacular cliffs at the west end of the lake) and then down and through the woods back.

Turned out to be a great walk - nice and varied - though somewhat longer than I'd intended (about 5 miles) due to following the forestry roads lower down (who knew they built dead ends on them?).

Weather utterly glorious as you can see - funny my leg hurts more on the flat than it does going straight up!

Dx

Just this minute spotted the first swallows of the year from our balcony - a most welcome sight. Didn’t look as though they were stopping, but hopefully more on the way - and summer with it! 

On 21/04/2021 at 13:10, Winsford Soul said:

Had quite a morning with a variety of birds. Residents, Summer visitors and Winter visitors, Aerial battles.

Song Thrush and a female Blackbird that thinks its a Ring Ouzel

Sand Martin , Swallow

Fieldfare with a Wheatear 

Lapwing with a Raven

Willow Warbler 

Steve lovely set of pictures, always 

good to see sand martins

thank you 

2 hours ago, Chalky said:

Only had a landscape lens on the camera today so had to take this with the phone, my first Dipper sighting this year.

Dipper is great, thanks for sharing 👍 

6 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Bit of a mixed bag this morning at Elton

No Lesser Whitethroat ,

Heard two Grasshopper Warbler reeling but no sightings

Female Wheatear

Lapwing chick

Roe Deer 

Common Whitethroat

And about 50 Swift passed over screaming and managed a quick picture of one before they carried on there journey.

Greenshank. this is the most heavily cropped of the pictures as the bird was actually on the far bank of the reservoir from where i was maybe 400 metres away  

All the pictures are heavily cropped as they where quite distant apart from the  Common Whitethroat

 

Steve white throat is a beauty, you

had a good day with the sunshine 🌞

thank you  

3 hours ago, Amsterdam Russ said:

Just this minute spotted the first swallows of the year from our balcony - a most welcome sight. Didn’t look as though they were stopping, but hopefully more on the way - and summer with it! 

That's brilliant news mate. They have been local to  me for about two weeks now, 1000,s of Sand Martin but I've only seen two House Martin,  plenty of Swifts today so don't know what has happened to the House Martin,  they normally here before the Swift 

Second guessing the next couple of nights cloudy skies so i took a few pictures of the Super pink moon last night

All three where taken on a tripod / Gimbal head and shutter release cable set up to minimise shake to get a clearer picture and i used different shutter speeds of 1/1250. 1/ 1600 and 1/2000 sec because of the speed of the Moon travelling across the view finder on the camera

I've added a black and white version.  

 

Edited April 27, 20214 yr by Winsford Soul

On 26/04/2021 at 20:10, Winsford Soul said:

Second guessing the next couple of nights cloudy skies so i took a few pictures of the Super pink moon last night

All three where taken on a tripod / Gimbal head and shutter release cable set up to minimise shake to get a clearer picture and i used different shutter speeds of 1/1250. 1/ 1600 and 1/2000 sec because of the speed of the Moon travelling across the view finder on the camera

 

Incredible, love the black and white snap as well 

29 minutes ago, Neil Austin said:

Incredible, love the black and white snap as well 

Thanks Neil.  Much appreciate your kind words 🙏

Well. This morning was the day i finally caught up with the Yellow Wagtails . One of the UK,s most colourful Summer visitors and as a bonus a Pied Wagtail that is almost black.

Might as well add the Grey Wagtail and White Wagtail for the set

 

Edited April 28, 20214 yr by Winsford Soul

So, something different these pictures were taken from a height of 80ft above see level from Rig Deck area.

Sharks and large Rays.

3 hours ago, Wally Francis said:

So, something different these pictures were taken from a height of 80ft above see level from Rig Deck area.

Sharks and large Rays.

Thanks Wally for sharing them. I bet its fantastic to see stuff like this whilst you're at work.  Bit better than UK water's 😁 even from that height 

9 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Well. This morning was the day i finally caught up with the Yellow Wagtails . One of the UK,s most colourful Summer visitors and as a bonus a Pied Wagtail that is almost black.

Might as well add the Grey Wagtail and White Wagtail for the set

 

Steve 

without doubt , got to be the snap of

the year, what a joy 😊 

1 minute ago, Neil Austin said:

Steve 

without doubt , got to be the snap of

the year, what a joy 😊 

Thanks Neil. ☺ I'm lucky enough to be semi - retired  and I can get out and about taking a few pictures  ( if I'm not fishing ) and share them on here The comments are really appreciated

10 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Well. This morning was the day i finally caught up with the Yellow Wagtails . One of the UK,s most colourful Summer visitors and as a bonus a Pied Wagtail that is almost black.

Might as well add the Grey Wagtail and White Wagtail for the set

 

Fantastic hat trick of Wagtails 👍🌞

I'm not a photographer  as you will see from the attached, but I thought nice blossom with grey skies in the background made a nice composition 

I can't say that I'm a photographer either,  but keeping the blossom thread going, here is my regular visitor singing for his supper 😁

28 minutes ago, Lozzer66 said:

I can't say that I'm a photographer either,  but keeping the blossom thread going, here is my regular visitor singing for his supper 😁

Lorraine.  That's a lovely picture and a blackbird singing in the blossom 🌸is to me the epitome of a English spring 

Edited April 29, 20214 yr by Winsford Soul

4 hours ago, Julianb said:

I'm not a photographer  as you will see from the attached, but I thought nice blossom with grey skies in the background made a nice composition 

Julian.  I'm not a photographer either. I just enjoy walking with the bonus of carrying a camera just in case I see anything interesting.  

Your garden looks lovely and the pictures are very good 👍

9 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Julian.  I'm not a photographer either. I just enjoy walking with the bonus of carrying a camera just in case I see anything interesting.  

Your garden looks lovely and the pictures are very good 👍

Many thanks

10 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Lorraine.  That's a lovely picture and a blackbird singing in the blossom 🌸is to me the epitome of a English spring 

I agree, a lovely sight and such a lovely song 🎵

Something a little different, but still photography...

It's a fine selection of aerial photographs taken mainly in the 1920s and 30s of British seaside towns and which feature in a new book England's Seaside Heritage from the Air, written by Allan Brodie. Story and images here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-56929622

 

Source: BBC News / © Historic England Archive / Aerofilms Collection

They're well worth checking out. 

 

Well i actually achieved a long time ambition today and managed to photograph a bird that i have not seen for over ten years and from the days before i even owned a camera. 

Black Necked Grebe

There,s also a picture of a Little Grebe and female Kingfisher but in a brief appearance 

On 19/04/2021 at 18:40, Tattoodave said:

Mum and 15 ducklings

later in the day :_0)

2 hours ago, Mal C said:

later in the day :_0)

The sad thing is Mal, she's down to 5 now

Screen shot of Tenby lifeboat Station with Wally the Walrus clearly visible on the lifeboat slipway.  Taken two minutes ago.  Please still be there four weeks tomorrow 🙏 when I can hopefully see him instead of photographs and videos 

Greylag Goslings