Make a Little Birdhouse in your Soul

Difficult wee devils to shoot these House Martins are... Ah, still odd being back, so up for the usual Sunday papers with a walk to the newsagent via Figgate Park. The House Martins (like Sand Martins and Swallows) are the fighter jets of the bird world, zipping about a few inches above the water surface, climbing at either end, then diving down again. After about ten minutes I'd got the routine sussed and started getting some reasonable shots. Although given it was dull I had to bump the ISO up to 1000 to get a fast enough shutter for their speed; and with only 200mm on the camera the focussing point was tiiiiiny. The shots over the water needed too much sharpening and so on, so you get one against the blank grey sky (which also happened to be the closest shot, so involved the least amount of cropping - it was a choice between this and a twin effort).

New life was on show as well, with the Canada Geese parents shepherding their gosling around the water. Always one in front and one behind.

Thought I'd get a blip in early as we'll be off to 'rescue' the cat from the cattery later today (he's always grumpy going there, then after a week has settled in so is grumpy with us when we go to collect him... House is odd without him around though...) and hopefully there will be enough breaks in the weather for us to tackle the remarkable growth in the garden in our week's absence.

Week's absence? Why yes, if you weren't paying attention to yesterday's blip there is now a blipbackblippery of a week in Skye (following our usual annual visit) featuring otters, jumping sharks, sea eagles, views and... oh yes... getting engaged.

Toodle.