A Piece of the Action.

Well three pieces actually.

Long-eared Owl. Brian Rafferty.

Another one of those irresistible Brian Rafferty Long-eared Owl shots showing to perfection the action of this bird diving to ground at prey, whether or not the bird scored on this attempt I wouldn't know but these birds make plunges like this many times without success, a hard life when the table isn't set every time you're feeling hungry or have a family to feed. BR's website is HERE please take a look.  A brilliant image as ever Brian and many thanks.

Osprey. Gary Jones.

A long distance shot of the Osprey coming in to land at the nest site in the Lakes. Opportunities for this level of photographic success don't come very often but Gary took advantage of this location at Bassenthwaite where facilities are in place to view these magnificent birds. Gary's website is HERE and well worth a look to see his wildlife and wanderings on the mountains. Thanks for the pic Gary which helps to fill the gaps on Birds2blog between my birding day's.

 

House Martin. Stuart Piner.

This is as good a photograph of the House Martin in flight as I've seen in many a year. I'd hazard a guess the bird had just taken off having taken a bath as the water droplets appear to be flying left, right, and centre. A pretty cool pic Stuart and many thanks for letting me show it here on the blog.

I'd sooner be birding....but unfortunately won't be until Monday at the earliest.

Variation's without a theme.

Well if you follow Birds2blog you'll know by now that I don't/can't get out to do the thing I love the best at weekends which in this case includes a so called bank holiday, but I'll tell you what, I have some excellent images in my library at the moment some of which I have been sent without request by some great guys I have got to know through my love for birding....hows that for friendship. The images here - with the exception of Paul Baker who can be found on Flickr - can all be seen on their respective authors blogs which I would ask you to look at from time to time and are strongly recommended, they can be linked to via my side bar.

If we start with this smart little thing - and you're anything like me - you won't have a clue as to what this bird is and won't ever have heard of it. This is the Bewick's Wren and I'd like to cover Thomas Bewick sometime on the blog but for now this little creature was given its name in honour of Bewick by John James Audubon who is remembered as the father of American ornithology....thanks for the pic goes to Paul Baker over there in BC Canada.

Gary Jones lives in Preston and apart from some excellent images on his blog Gary is both a wildlife photographer and keen mountaineer. I've shown some of Gary's images including the Sand Martin's before, this is a brilliant flight shot in my opinion....Thanks for this Gary.

Mark Fellowes has some excellent images on his website, please take a look sometime. The last time I visited Mark's site this stunning macro image of a 'fly' was unidentified but if that's not the case now I shall edit the post to correct this. A superb diversion from birds and thanks for that Mark.

It's a while since I showcased some work by Richard Shilling as another diversion from the birds so I'd like to put that right with a couple of his latest landart creations this one he calls 'Red Green Laurels'....

....and this one 'May Day Colour Totem'.

When it comes to having a creative mind Richard leaves me out in the cold and the more you look at and study his work the more creativity and hard work you appreciate goes into the making. Keep up the good work Richard for goodness sake!

Birding tomorrow....hopefully.