Week 6 - Week Beginning 29/01/24 - Spring

30/01/ 24

Walking back from university lectures today the weather was extremely warm and sunny with it being 9 degrees celsius. I also noticed my first tree leaf shoots for the year, hawthorn in the hedgerow I helped lay on the 7th and 8th of february last year. Looking at the shoots it appears they may have been in shoot for a few days already. It almost seemed like spring.


Hawthorn Shoots

01/02/24

Walking to university in the morning I got some excellent photos of a Grey Heron, Mallards and Rooks and the Kingfisher (for like the 5th time.) The lighting was perfect bright which allowed my photos to have a good level of exsposure even with a slightly higher shutter speed. It also allowed me to increase my apreture up to f 7.1 to increase sharpness. Aswell as phototgraphing the heron sitting I tried to get it taking of but I was too close to fit the entire bird in the frame. I also saw a Dunnock and the egyptian geese which I tried to photograph taking off but failed.


Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea). Newport Canal, 01/02/24

Female Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Newport Canal, 01/02/24

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). Newport Canal, 01/02/24

Rook (Corvus frugilegus). Newport Canal, 01/02/24

02/02/24

As the snowdrops were in the early stages so I decided to grab my wide angles and take some interesting perspectives of the snow drops. 

Snowdrops. Harper Adams University, 02/02/24.

The view of the top photo doesm't seem that wide or close to the flowers until you compare a shot taken with the same settings and camera equipment but with the perspective a phone would have (see below.) Sutble but different.


Snowdrops. Harper Adams University, 02/02/24.

Lectures that day finished at 4pm, and as I was walking back late it was perfect time to photograph the susnet. After fiddling with camera settings I finally got a photo I was really happy with.


Sunset looking west from fields in Edgmond. 02/02/24.

Today was also the first day I saw an insect in 2024 it made me so happy. I also noticed a buzzard on top of telograph pole. It really does feel like spring.

Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo). Fields in Edgmond, 02/02/24.


03/02/24

After doing some assigment work in the morning I decided to go out and walk the canal looking for a tufted duck a local had sighted recently and the little grebe that occasionally turns up. Luckily the Goosander had returned. I am starting to expect they are nesting near by especailly as when some Goosanders fly off they often return quite soon implying they can't be far away.


Female Goosander (Mergus merganser). Newport Canal, 03/02/24.

Male Goosander (Mergus merganser). Newport Canal, 03/02/24.

I also got a photo of a squirrel and a some black headed gulls in flight. No tufted duck though.

Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Newport Canal, 03/02/24.

After the change in weather, the emergence of tree shoots and snowdrops and my first insect made this my first week of spring.

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