BIRDS-WHAT BIRDS (07/11/10)

Flushed with the success of yesterdays outing. The photographs were not of the highest quality but I did see the Whooper Swans and one or two I Don’t Knows. Thanks to John at MIDMARSH JOTTINGS and Keith at HOLDINGMOMENTS these gaps in my knowledge were quickly rectified, thank you both for your patience. If blogging has taught me anything it is never to let ignorance deter me from posting. There are so many kind readers willing to put me right that I sometimes wonder whether to caption stuff at all. You all seem to have a pretty good idea what you are looking at.

As soon as I deemed it light enough we set off on a tour of the ponds. The Coots are still on the first one but I have more than enough images of Coot bums so ignored the antisocial little blighters. The second pond was empty but yielded a reasonable reflection.

I did say reasonable not fantastic. Perhaps reasonable is over optimistic, I’ll settle for reflection.

We arrived at the big pond. Oh Dear, a few gulls and that was it.

      And another reflection. Then the gulls departed for pastures or lakes new.

     Off they go. We hung around for an hour but no sign of Lapwing, Swans or Geese.

Whilst waiting I attempted to snap the Wren but all I got were twigs and tree trunks. They are testing little devils. It’s not as if they are shy, they come close enough but I’ve decided either they or I have attention span disorder. Forever flitting about.

Olympus may be very proud of the speed of their autofocus system. Rightly so till it comes to the Wren, that’s got them beaten hands down or wings down in it’s case.

Amazes me Wrens can fly at all. Fat wee things with no tail to speak of….. A case of the pot calling the kettle black if ever I heard one.

We returned back to the camper, I got my retainer to fetch me a drink………………………………….

   A little early in the morning for a beer. Those of you that carry a retinue of servants probably have  a similar problem. Since the demise of livery they seem intent on emulating their employers both in dress and demeanour. Damned annoying it is too!

Enough foolery. I was going down to the Abbey but nothing to be gained there so will save it for another day. It looks like a dusk or dawn job. Or at the very least the squally skies that have made the last two weeks so memorable.

I use Adobe Elements and upgrade as and when they incorporate a feature I want, this usually occurs every couple of years or so. This year Elements 9 had layer masks so it was a must have. I also found the spot healing brush can cope with large areas, content aware I believe they call it. The clone stamp now shows inside it’s circle what you are about to stamp. I’m very pleased.

   Llama before………………This is a straight RAW conversion so no sharpening or any other jiggery pokery ……………………………………..

     Llama after……. You have to play with brush size, and take small areas at a time, when near contrasting edges. It is only a matter of getting used to it. This was only a ten minute job and that included cropping, burning some grey into the sky, lifting contrast and a quick sharpen. The wash out to the left and under it’s chin is on the original image. I have no idea what caused it.

A disclaimer here. I have been receiving unsolicited comments encouraging me to advertise products in the blog. This is not in response to one of these. This blog is non commercial and is purely for my edification and hopefully yours.

If Marion is reading, watch out! I’ll chop off your fingers.

Hopefully we will get some pictures this afternoon, it’s a gorgeous day and I’ll need something to post tomorrow. The weather forecast is still appalling.

Have a wonderful week.