www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Thought some of you might like this pic from the garden today... alas not a butterfly sighted yet!

Beautiful shot Paul!

I saw a Goldcrest today, but failed to get even a record shot

Cheers,

- Pete

Excellent LTT Paul!

Pete, I had exactly the same thing with a Goldcrest this morning...managed to get a Robin though



Martin.

One blackcap this morning, no shot unfortunitly, and a few great tits too

Your Robin is so much better focussed than my LTT!!!! I know I havea substandard camera...one day, one day!!!!!

Wow, couple of good shots there chaps, love that LTT, wish we had some in the garden to photograph !
Currently we are knee deep in Siskins and Goldfinches with a smattering of Bramblings, not so many Robins though, we had 6 this time last year, all chasing each other around, just a couple here at the moment.

Fantastic... I hardly ever see siskins, and even more rarely Bramblings!

Heres a Cock bird, taken mid Feb, these are charming us by singing en masse in a nearby Oak tree in the late afternoon.
We're getting about two dozen down to the feeders at the moment.

These shots are all magnificent - and they really show me the limitations of my little Canon compact!!

What I especially love about them is that they show the expressions on the faces, and so the individuality of each bird. We easily get into the habit of thinking of birds (and butterflies) as types, because we never get close enough to see them as individuals. But these are all characters, with purposes and hopes and fears all of their own.

Fantastic.

Guy

Guy.. you are so right.... if you study any living creature for more than a glance it seems to me they do have higher thought processes than "feed", "fight", "flight" & "reproduce".OK, so let's not humanize their behaviour but I find it difficult to believe they are emotionless!

Exactly. Pictures like these give us a tiny glimpse into lives that don't revolve around our human concerns! That's why I love just watching nature. When nations are going to war and governments are scheming unthinkable schemes the long-tailed tits are simply getting on building little mud nests with holes to stick their tails out of. I wish it were all so simple.

Guy

I have seen more birds this winter then I can remember.
I did initially think it was because I moved our of the burbs to a small village which naturally has more species than the city.
However I think mostly that it is because of following & photographing butterflies I now look at everything more closely.

Nature is a wonderful thing & a great medicine when you have the winter blues!

Still waiting for my first butterfly of the year in Norfolk!

Angie

I saw a butterfly briefly pass through my garden two days ago during the high winds. It was a small nymphalid, either comma or small tortoiseshell, but I haven't found any to photograph yet.
That LTT is a cracking shot, whatever the camera is. The robin is very nice too but they're not so difficult to catch.
I caught a tit too, a great:

Excellent bird pics guys, but here's a slightly bigger bird. Great Grey Owl.

Lovely shot Lisa, I love Owls, where did you capture this one ?

um - back garden

Here's a bl@@dy great Tawny Eagle back garden also

Lovely shot Lisa, I love Owls, where did you capture this one ?

As much as I would like the two birds above in my back yard, the pics were taken up at the Hawk Conservancy. If you like Owls Mike then you will love this place, they normaly do three displays a day, including the woodland Owl display. When we were there they were flying a Asian wood Brown, Milky Eagle Owl a Great Grey Owl and my favourite - Cinnamon who is a Siberian Eagle Owl. They were also flying Barn Owls earlier in the day.

We have a few centres around here that do proper photography days, perhaps a few of us 'out of the butterfly season' would like to get together, and hire one of the centres as a group??

Ah! right, its been years since I went to the Hawk conservancy, looks like another visit is due ..........back garden indeed ! I was trying to figure out where you'd be keeping them.

I like the idea of booking a photo day, depending on day/cost I'd be very up for that.

I have gentler folk in my back garden.

This roe deer was furtively guzzling all the white crocuses early this morning, one by one:




And on my morning dog walk I picked up the trail of a badger that had been legging it along a cross-country ski piste. The coin is a CHF 1 piece, about an inch across.



Guy