Monday, 26 April 2010

The end of a Dull Day

Quite a change in the weather yesterday. Saturday had been sunny all day but Sunday started out overcast and continued that way with rain on and off all morning. At least it brightened up a bit for the afternoon walk. As we were returning across the cricket field there was one solitary Pied Wagtail. Though it kept a wary eye on us we were able to get reasonably close to it but it still looked very small to the Lumix, even at 12x zoom.

P1000480 Wagtail

 I was pleasantly surprised how clear small crops from the photographs turned out.

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

There is starting to be a profusion of blossom on various bushes and trees now. I am pretty sure this is Blackthorn growing in the field hedgerow.

Hedgerow 1

In one garden hedge the Berberis is opening its tiny flowers.

Berberis

By 8 o'clock it was pleasant outside and we sat in the garden for a while listening to the birds. I could hear four different Blackbirds, two of them very close while a Dunnock did its best to make its much quieter song heard.

9 comments:

  1. Nice shots of the Pied Wag John. The zoom works pretty well on that camera. There are a lot of Yellow Wags around now I understand, but I haven't been lucky enough to see one yet.

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  2. Thank you Roy. I've seen pied and grey wagtails but have yet to see a yellow.

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  3. Hi John, it is the Blackthorn flower that is out now. The flowers on the Blackthorn comes out before the leaves, whereas on the Hawthorn, leaves comes out before the flowers. Around here, the Hawthorn hedges are now turning green. That is one rule on identifying the difference between Blackthorn and Hawthorn. Also the Blackthorn comes into flower first and when they exit the stage, the Hawthorn comes into flower.

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  4. Lovely shots John, image quality is great even with the cropping.

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  5. Excellent shots of the Pied with the Lumix John.
    Good to see plenty of blossom for the birds and bees. FAB.

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  6. Hello Linda. Thanks for that. I was fairly sure it was the Blackthorn which shows first.

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  7. Thank you Paul. I have been pleased with the quality of the Leica lens and the image sensor.

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  8. Thank you Frank. It is far better than I expected from a pocket camera. Lots of bumble bees about, many keep exploring indoors for some reason.

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  9. Looks like Blackthorn to me. Here in London most of it has now gone over. It was a good month later than it usually is. Lots of blossom and now lots of little sloes to look forward to in the Autumn!

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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