Author Topic: I can't resist  (Read 5927 times)

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Offline Eric Hardy

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I can't resist
« on: May 11, 2009, 08:26:57 AM »
I can't resist posting this telephoto picture I took through the glass of our bedroom window at 5:18 am thismorning



Eric H


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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2009, 10:13:29 AM »
Not bad considering it was taken through glass.

You're obviously an early riser.  ;)

Were you using your new telephoto lens for that shot Eric?

Laurie.

Offline Eric Hardy

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2009, 10:23:02 AM »
This was not my newest lens, Laurie. This was my 55mm - 250mm Canon fully extended. This shot is the equivalent of 400mm on a full frame camera.

As for early rising, I did go back to bed but I was up again at 6:00. I am a bit of an early to bed early to rise person. I think the early morning is often the best part of the day.

Eric H

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2009, 10:32:17 AM »
Thats a lovely photo, Eric.

Begorrah, the last time I saw 5:18 am was in my younger days, but I was more like coming home from a night out   ::):)
Seriously, I agree with you that morning is the best part of the day. However, I also find that the midnight hours are also very productive for my software development. Besides, music always sounds better in the still of the night.
In the early days of developing Ideas Genie, 4am was not unknown, then up at around 7 to go to my day job.


Offline Eric Hardy

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2009, 10:38:04 AM »
Oh I am SO glad that I am retired, George! ;D

Eric H

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2009, 10:42:44 AM »
I bet you are  :)
I'm sitting here looking out at sun shining from blue skies with light white cloud and wishing I could be in the garden.

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2009, 10:51:42 AM »
As you all know, Kathy and I like to go bird-watching, and we'd never experienced a 'dawn chorus' before so we decided to get up early one morning a couple of years ago.

Rising at 4.30am we got ready, donned our trusty binoculars, and at 5am made the short minute walk to the green-belt area near our house.

Although we heard a lot of bird-song we didn't see anything.  It is so peaceful at that time of the morning though.  The air is so crisp and clean.

After having had our 'experience' we went back home and felt tired for the rest of the day.

Was it worth it?  It was okay, but getting up that early on a regular basis is not something we'd really like to repeat.  Ho-hum.  ::)

Laurie.

Offline Eric Hardy

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2009, 11:37:02 AM »
Although we heard a lot of bird-song we didn't see anything. 
You are lucky, being deaf I don't hear the dawn chorus. I think I compensate by using my eyes though and think I notice things some people miss.

Eric H

Offline Lyn and Malcolm

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2009, 04:41:33 PM »

Although the main road is out front, the back garden is only 20 metres from the Ferndown common, not really a common as such, lots of trees, gorse and heather really, so we can lay in bed and hear the dawn chorus. We found a Dartford Warbler the other day transporting nesting material to low down in a gorse bush which is only 100 metres from our house.

So although living on the edge of a small town, I think we are very lucky.

Malcolm

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2009, 04:58:08 PM »
So although living on the edge of a small town, I think we are very lucky.
Malcolm
Very lucky indeed Malcolm.

Fancy doing a house swap?  :D

Laurie.

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2009, 05:03:10 PM »
.............. being deaf I don't hear the dawn chorus.  I think I compensate by using my eyes though and think I notice things some people miss.
Eric H
That is a scientific fact Eric.  It's said that if you lose one of your senses, specifically sight or hearing, then the other one is heightened to compensate.

Laurie.
 

Offline Eric Hardy

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #11 on: May 11, 2009, 05:24:34 PM »
That is a scientific fact Eric.  It's said that if you lose one of your senses, specifically sight or hearing, then the other one is heightened to compensate
That is certainly a consolation, Laurie.

Eric H

Offline Eric Hardy

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2009, 06:26:34 PM »
the back garden is only 20 metres from the Ferndown common, not really a common as such, lots of trees, gorse and heather really,
Being near a common is a great joy and privilege. Here we actually face onto a common and approach our house down a rough track. The plus side is certainly the wild life and being able to walk out of the front door onto common land. The minus side is all the weed seeds that blow over our front hedge.

Our common links up with neighbouring commons which stretch for several miles. When we first moved here 53 years ago there were large open bits and some beech woods. Animals grazed, including our horse and donkeys. Now that there is no more grazing, like your common at Ferndown, large areas are reverting so we get gorse and worse, bracken. Gradually the open spaces are becoming woodland. Luckily we are opposite the village cricket and football pitches so this area is kept nice and clear.

The Parish Council and local Common Preservation Society do their best to manage the common and so areas near the village are being kept open. Years ago we used to watch the skylarks rise up from the common in front of us. Now the common is changing its character and it is years since I saw one here. Our most prominent bird here now is the red kite which was successfully reintroduced into this area a few years ago. I think there is a nesting pair in the wood behind us because they are always circling our garden. We occasionally leave pieces of raw meat out on the lawn and they are gone in a flash. I found a dead baby rabbit near the greenhouse and popped that on the lawn. A flurry of wings and it is gone.

We have had nuthatches nest in the garden. It was a treat watching a family of five walk headfirst down the trunk of our old conifer. We also have had a pair of green woodpeckers and a young one picking up ants from around an old trees stump near our kitchen window so there is a lot to look at.

My prize shot was of a brown long eared bat which I found hanging onto one of our old apple trees in broad daylight last July.



I sent the photo to the Bat Conservation Trust and they said they would keep it in their archives.

Eric H
« Last Edit: May 11, 2009, 06:31:06 PM by Eric Hardy »

Offline roiphil

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Re: I can't resist
« Reply #13 on: May 18, 2009, 09:42:25 PM »
As you all know, Kathy and I like to go bird-watching, and we'd never experienced a 'dawn chorus' before so we decided to get up early one morning a couple of years ago.

Rising at 4.30am we got ready, donned our trusty binoculars, and at 5am made the short minute walk to the green-belt area near our house.

Although we heard a lot of bird-song we didn't see anything.  It is so peaceful at that time of the morning though.  The air is so crisp and clean.

After having had our 'experience' we went back home and felt tired for the rest of the day.

Was it worth it?  It was okay, but getting up that early on a regular basis is not something we'd really like to repeat.  Ho-hum.  ::)

Laurie.


at the moment i have heard the cuckoo at about 5am and we have a family of thrushes as guests in the fascia chirping and cheeping all day but it is nice to see the young come out for the first time