Friends, Strangers and Thieves
Saturday, 24. January 2009, 21:05:44
The sun is returning hesitantly to the weary British skies, and pleasant brightness during the day has become a very starry vista outside by night 
Orion and Sirius are now well above the horizon at sundown and Venus is spectacular in the west.
I've been exploring the parks and suburbs of western London today, where there be thieves...
...of one sort or another!
And, of course, some avian friends and strangers that often cross my path in Surrey.
Black headed gull
Ring-necked parakeet - I was stunned by how common these exotic parakeets have become in London.
Grey heron - more of a stranger: at home, I generally see them flying overhead, so it made for a nice change to see one at ground level!
Skylark
This is a very difficult bird to photograph in the North Downs. I often see them performing their display flight, but that consists of soaring rapidly skywards, singing loudly, until they are almost invisible to the naked eye. I was a little surprised that the small groups of larks in Richmond were relatively approachable, but I was, of course, pleased nonetheless
Would that I could say the same for great spotted woodpeckers
This one was high up among small branches, calling noisily. It's a male - you can just see the red patch on the back of his neck.
All of which seems a good lead in to say that, while my wildlife scrapbook page is still largely under construction, my updated and (mostly) illustrated local bird list is now online
Orion and Sirius are now well above the horizon at sundown and Venus is spectacular in the west.I've been exploring the parks and suburbs of western London today, where there be thieves...
...of one sort or another!
And, of course, some avian friends and strangers that often cross my path in Surrey.
Black headed gull
Ring-necked parakeet - I was stunned by how common these exotic parakeets have become in London.
Grey heron - more of a stranger: at home, I generally see them flying overhead, so it made for a nice change to see one at ground level!
Skylark
This is a very difficult bird to photograph in the North Downs. I often see them performing their display flight, but that consists of soaring rapidly skywards, singing loudly, until they are almost invisible to the naked eye. I was a little surprised that the small groups of larks in Richmond were relatively approachable, but I was, of course, pleased nonetheless Would that I could say the same for great spotted woodpeckers
This one was high up among small branches, calling noisily. It's a male - you can just see the red patch on the back of his neck.All of which seems a good lead in to say that, while my wildlife scrapbook page is still largely under construction, my updated and (mostly) illustrated local bird list is now online
and footage of those times really did make me laugh. So I remixed into a little video for my blog. Please enjoy!
...in the hills and valleys where I now photograph foxes, but they went extinct in northern Europe many millennia ago. They used to be the most widely distributed large mammal on Earth. In prehistoric times, lions ranged from Peru to France, and were an important part of the Pleistocene fauna in what is now the United States. 
WIDGETIZE