Holme Fen sunset

A mostly domestic sort of day today - food shopping, gardening and filling in all the holes in the hallway, prior to painting.

But after a cold grey start, the sun finally came out towards the end of the afternoon, and Pete and I rushed off to Holme Fen NNR. Part of the reserve faces west and is a good place to view and photograph a winter sunset. After some deliberation I finally chose this shot, because it captures the jumble of birch trees, some dead and dying, over an understorey of reed - a very characteristic fenland scene.

The sunset was not the most spectacular I've seen there (the sky was too clear!), but the birds were good. The birch trees were full of families of long-tailed tits, while one reed-fringed ditch had a significant roost of reed buntings. And to top it all, as we approached the car, a barn owl was gliding silently over the fields.

In my biography I state that I live in a scenically challenged part of eastern England. It's true that we don't have hills, mountains or a spectacular coastline, but our gentle landscape has its own beauty, and is full of wildlife if you take the time to look.