I start taking photos

Since my last post I've been out on a few nature walks, the success of which has been limited at best, but on the plus side I think my bird ID skills are improving. 

I mentioned in my last post that I'd recently invested in a new lens. 'New' is a bit of an overstatement - it was actually the cheapest second hand 300mm lens I could find and is a bit bashed up in various ways, hence the price. But I wanted to experiment with a piece of equipment that actually allowed me to get zoomed-in shots of birds and the like, which it has. I took this lens for a spin after watching half an hour of a disappointing Euros game and getting a bit fed up. My nature walk took me to Paradise Nature Reserve and Grantchester Meadows when the sun was just starting to set. I didn't manage to get good photos of most of the things I saw, including flock of what were either wrens or sedge warblers hopping around in a tree above my head. 

Song thrush doing his thing

Red admiral

Some kind of swallow or martin... not sure which

A beautiful evening!

Slightly further afield, I cycled a couple of weekends ago to Wicken Fen. This nature reserve is known for its bird life, but I think I saw more interesting things along the way. Armed with my waterproofs (for it was a gloomy gloomy day) and a pannier full of camera gear, I cycled the 25 km or so out across the fens. Having grown up in Scotland, there's something that still feels so exotic about that flat expanse of wetlands. On this cycle ride I saw reed buntings, reed warblers, sedge warblers and corn buntings. Once I arrived at the reserve itself I mostly just saw house sparrows, but they were very well-behaved and good at posing for pictures.

I should really invest in a kick stand

Posing (blinking?) sparrow

Flying sparrow!