My blog is mostly about wildlife, particularly birds, walking, days out, all growing things and anything else that comes to mind.
To view pictures in larger format, just click on any picture for the picture gallery....

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Going to roost and Sunsets

Had a fairly domestic day today and, finally, managed to clean my very dirty car - I can see you all standing back in amazement! And why not? I did!

This afternoon I was out and about with my daughter and we gave my grandson a lift home from school - he was rather pleased!

So at about 3.45 I decided a quick walk around Bushey Park was in order and I just happened to have the camera in the car - Oh , Quelle surprise

The sun was beginning to set which caused some rather nice colour effects of the birds on the water. Although my garden pond was finally free of ice today, some still remained on the ponds and the park as evidenced by the birds seemingly "walking on water".




The sun then started to set in earnest and, with partial cloud cover, the sky became a mass of colour!




The clouds started to clear and the red ball that was the sun, hung very low in the sky, just above the horizon.

This had some amazing lighting effects on the trees and birds.
(I have not post-processed any of these pictures, so the colours are as real as when they were photographed.)





Another bonus of being there at the time I was, is that the birds were going to roost.

Several Jackdaws had gathered in the oak tree - this is just half of the tree (didn't have the landscape lens!!) and the other half was similarly occupied.

And several groups of Ring-necked Parakeets, often 20 plus in a group, flew over on their way to the roost
(Photographically this is a dreadful picture, but it demonstrates the Paras in flight)


And to round off the day....

an obliging Black-headed Gull

and Jackdaw
(I'm beginning to lose count of the number of times I've photographed this tree stump!)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tricia

Looks like it was a great time to go out and take photographs, they are great. The colours are marvellous. We were thinking of going to Bushey Park today but we never got our act together and there were a few drops of rain.;-)Jackie.

Anonymous said...

Once again Tricia, you have produced some superb Photo's.

The effect of the setting sun on the Black-Headed Gull WOW. Just going back a few shots, your pic of the 2 Black-Headed Gulls on the pond, the 1 in the background is an adult winter. But the 1 in front has me puzzled?? its head-moult would suggest adult moulting from summer to winter!! it must be verrryyy late moulting Gull?? any opinions anybody? Where's C, when she is needed!!! lol. Keep em coming Tricia.


paul.

Tricia Ryder said...

Jackie - yes - often at the end of the day, the light is fantastic!

Paul - thanks. It's not the first time recently I've seen a bh-gull with this head molt! Interesting!

FAB said...

Love the sunset & tree pictures. FAB

Jan said...

Love the sunset pics, fantastic.

Tricia Ryder said...

FAB - many thanks
Jan- thanks to you too and good to see you here!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful sunset shots, love those golden colours.

Paul.

The Quacks of Life said...

love the tufty. and the red sky landscapes

Anonymous said...

Excellent photos. The trees look lovely.
As for the coot on ice, I've just posted some photos of coots on the Model Boat Lake in Bushy Park on my blog
http://my.opera.com/Ukwildlife/blog/2009/01/14/bushy-park-coots-on-ice
(hope you don't mind the link)

Janine said...

Great sunsets T!

oldcrow61 said...

Fantastic sunset pictures.

Tricia Ryder said...

Paul (LBJ), Pete, Neil, Janine and OC
Thanks to all of you.

The colours of the sky were amazing!

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