Canadian goose

It was dull again today, with heavy clouds but thankfully it remained dry all day. After breakfast we went to Bushy Park as I wanted to practise photographing birds in flight, something I have not done much of at all. In fact I haven't photographed birds even motionless very much, bird photography is the one genre of photography where equipment does matter, and that saying about 'it's down to one's photographic skills and not the cost of the equipment' are not true when it comes to bird photography - those long lenses one sees with birders are invested in for good reason. Unfortunately I don't have a 800mm prime lens (and would never justify getting one) so lots of cropping has to happen.

There were the usual suspects there today, plenty of geese, swans and hundreds of ring necked parakeets all being very noisy. The Canadian geese were getting a bit excited about something and as they flew off I managed to get some photos, not the best ones but it's a start. I included an extra one as the expression on the face of the goose on the right made me laugh!

Xena loves the smells in the bracken there, so enjoys running around, but she is kept on the lead when near the birds and kept well away from the deer. I think its still worth the walk for her though, as those smells keep her nose to the ground all the time!

Tonight we are going to dinner at friends who live in Kent, its about an hour and a quarter drive from us so they did offer for us to sleep over but we need to come back for Xena. Tommy is in Cambridge with Inca this weekend - he was going to be at home but his plans changed, so he is not here to look after Xena. We have not seen these friends for a few years now, we used to see them regularly when the boys were at school together. Their son and Luke are still very good friends and see each other often.