Canada Geese landing at Lackford Lakes

Not so much synchronised swimming as synchronised landing. This group of Canada Geese were startled from their spot at the far end of the Plover Lake at Lackford Lakes, and flew straight towards our hide, landing perfectly together. I counted over 70 Canada Geese and 50 Mute Swans on the lake that day.

My Canon 60D was mounted on the digiscope at this time, so I caught this on my old Canon 450D. After being dropped, it only focuses on the centre spot, but it did a good enough job here!

Canon 450D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 50mm, 1/400 sec at f/10, ISO 400

Last Poppy standing

The poppies at Cambridge Botanic Gardens were just going over, but this one was still giving a good show. You can see that it has dropped its stamens as the seed head takes over. The petals would follow soon after.

Digital cameras can struggle with high colour saturation. In order to preserve any texture in the petals, I had to turn the red saturation down quite a long way in Lightroom.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/250 sec at f/11, ISO 320

Palmate Newts

This pair of Palmate Newts were in the Fenland Pond at the Botanic Gardens, here in Cambridge. I'm pretty sure there were Smooth Newts in there, too.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Dragonfly surprise

Here's another case of serendipity. I went to Cambridge Botanic Gardens this week, and spent most of the time at the Fenland pond. This dragonfly was laying eggs. It would land on a lily pad, dip its tail over the edge and feel around for a stem to lay an egg on, then move on. I took several pictues of it, and this is not the best, by any means - it's a bit blurred and out of focus. But it is the most interesting. Because it was only when I veiwed it at home later that I noticed something on the twig in the top right of the picture, behind the dragonfly's wing. If I'm not mistaken, it's a dragonfly larva, just crawled out of the water, ready to shed its underwater skin!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 320

Here come the gang!

This family of Mallard ducklings were both cute and well-disciplined. They paddled along in a row chasing insects on the surface of the water, with Mum at the rear keeping a close eye. By spreading out, they each had a chance of making a catch.

The light was pretty good, but I still needed to push the ISO a little to allow me to both stop down (for depth of focus) and shorten the exposure (to freeze the action).

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 110mm, 1/320 sec at f/16, ISO 400

Dragonfly

Here's a Four-spot Chaser Dragonfly, which landed straight in front of our hide when we visited Lackford Lakes recently.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/1600 sec at f/8, ISO 500

An unusual view of the London Eye

Here's the proof that we were inside the Houses of Parliament! From the room the Reception was in, you could see across the Thames to St Thomas's Hospital, and round the corner (just) to the London Eye.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 50mm, 1/100 sec at f/11, ISO 400