Early morning at Redmires Reservoirs

Yesterday morning I was up early, I thought getting to the reservoirs before the sun was up.
It was a long time since I was up here, mostly I went there for now it's migratory bird times and you never know what you'll see for interesting, it may well get some rare birds too.
Well I got to the first reservoir around 7:00 and there was a lot of seagulls in the air, they usually spend the night at the reservoirs and then early in the morning they flies away. Saw a few other birders, these reservoars are popular with ornithologists, because the passing amount of migratory birds here some day can be enormous. And to see it, then it's early mornings and late evenings that is best.
But this day was not one of those days, the only thing I saw was a lot of Pink-footed Goose.
Walked around there on the trail`s and looked for something to shoot, unfortunately it seems that the birds are gone by now, or so they hide themselves only '. I read in some newspaper that the birds feathers change at this time, and then they're much shyer. Went and checked for water voles but did not see them either, so I went to the rabbits and they were there, so I followed them for a while. But now the sun began to be too high in the sky and the clock approached 13:00. So i decided to go home.

Photo equipment I used this morning was the Nikon D90 and Nikon 200-400mm f4 lens and a monopod. This combo gives with the camera's DX crop (1,5) sensor 300-600mm F4 lens.
Click on a picture to enlarge it!

Up here the autumn colous is on the way

A sheep in the morning light

Heather

Wild rabbit

Pink-footed Goose/Spetsbergsgås

Pheasant (female)

 

Wild rabbit

Not edible fungus

Howerflies/blomflugor

Photos from a humid Rivelin Valley

Today I finally came out, after it has been raining constantly for days. So I have not been directly excited to go out, but today it looked a little better so I took the bike down to the Rivelin Valley. I was down here in the rain a few days ago and saw a tree with quite a lot of fungus, so I thought that I had to come back and take some photos of them, and that was what I did today. It was quite difficult to shoot them, for they were quite high up from the ground.
Then i continued walking down by the river that winds down into the valley, found more fungus that I also photographed.
Autumn said to be here according to the calendar, but it was not much trace of it in the valley still pretty green. I think the autumn colors start to come in a month.
After some hours, so I turned back, and on the way back, I saw something that moved underground. I stopped, I had my suspicions what it was and it sure was a mole. It was fun to follow it when it digs just below the ground, for it was on the hunt for worms. And the worms escaped truly in a panic when it poked its way. Sometimes it was 5-6 worms in a row that came out of the ground.
And sometimes a worm disappeared from the ground, it was like as if the mole sucked up them.

Unfortunately, it did not come up to the surface. but I managed to get a photo when it took a worm. But you can only see the nose and whiskers, I did not want to dig it up because that would not be so nice.

Pictures today is taken with the Nikon 3D`s, 24-70 F2,8 lens and 70-200 F2,8 vr2

 

click on a picture to enlarge it!

Shiny fungus

Fungus in a big tree

This is the tree with fungus

More fungus

The vole on the right side of the small rock ;)

Still pretty green.

Some snail

fungus on birch tree

 

Croatian Flora and Fauna

Now it will be the last part of Croatia, and today it will be pictures of animals and flowers. Have tried to shoot birds here, but they were so incredibly timid so i did not get so many pictures of them. And last week down there I found a place that had a lot of birds including kingfisher, little egret, and some shorebirds but unfortunately most often it is difficult to get to some sensible images when you do not have some sort of camoflauge and will not be enough close.
This year, I discovered that there were lots of fine butterflies, because I can not remember it's been so much before.
I tried to photograph a butterfly named makaon which has the size of a palm and is really nice. But they're impossible to shoot in the heat, because they are kind never still, they just fly all the time. So I gave up on them and shot a few other species instead. Even managed to find a turtle they are there all over the place, but they are not easy to find in the terrain.
So it was all from croatia then. Next time it will be probably somewhere from the Peak District again.

Click on a image to enlarge it!

Starfish

Nice butterfly

One more nice one



Dry flower

Funny looking bug



Heron in morning sun (juvenile)

Little egret`s seeking for food

Humming-bird-hawk-moth. nice name on this one

Peljesac Peninsula, Croatia

Now I continue with some more pictures from croatia and this time from the Peljesac peninsula.
Peljesac is about 70km long and 8km wide, and I really like to drive the route from Ston to Orebic because there is so much to see. The road sometimes go high on the mountains and from there it is great views and then down towards sea level again and then up through the pine-covered mountainsides and it smells so incredibly good about them, then you can hear cicadas everywhere.
And so there is grape farming everywhere and signs showing all the wine tasting places so just choose. my favorites are Dingac and Grgich.
The road is quite narrow and steep in places, so it can be scary to drive there. :))
Then you can always take the detour to all the small villages that are almost everywhere by the sea, maybe eat some good food and then sunbathe, swim. We usually do that.
From here you can also take the ferry to Mljet, is an island just 5km away and they have a  nice National Park and it is worth a visit. Or you can go all the way to Orebic and take that ferry to Korcula, which is a bit like a mini version of Dubrovnik. Well worth a visit too.

 

Click on a picture to enlarge it.

Clear water and 25C

Nice wood carving

One of many small villages

Message wall outside a restaurant

The good smelling pine forest

Mmm figs

Rocky coast

Small village by the sea

Grape farmings along the mountainside

Grapes

And olives

Sunset over the grape groves

 

Ston, Croatia

Today I continue with some pictures from Ston and Hodilje.
Hodilje village just 2 km from Ston is a small fishing village specializing in mussels and oysters, are said to be among the best in the world and I agree with that :)). It is also in Hodilje our summer cottage is located.
Hodilje set inside a long bay and has nutrient-rich water, so that's why it's good for mussel farms and the like.
Swimming and sunbathing, we usually do down at the small boat harbor which is a few hundred meters below the house, but because the water is so nutritious, so visibility is not always scuba-friendly. Therefore, we tend to make small excursions on the Peljesac peninsula to where you're out of the open sea and the crystal clear water and strangely usually much warmer water about 25C. More from Peljesac another day.

Click on an image to enlarge.

 

View from summer house balcony

 

Window painting in Ston

A part of Ston wall

 

Ston and the salt ponds from the wall

 Ston and the wall


Picture taken from hodilje against Luka an another fishing village opposite Hodilje.
And some of the mussel farms between them


 

Old wooden door in Ston

Salt ponds in Ston and bad weather in coming

The old church in Ston, i think it was destroyed by an earthquake for long time ago.

Ångra ändringarna

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Now I have come back from a 3 week vacation in croatia. Me and my wife try to go there every year and the reason we go there is that we have a summer house there. It is 5o km from Dubrovnik and on a peninsula called Peljesac also known for its fine wines.
We live near Ston which is famous for its wall that runs from Ston over the mountain to Mali Ston. The wall is called the "European Chinese Wall" and said to be the second longest wall in the world.
But Ston is not only known for the wall there are also salt ponds from the 1300s and they still use salt from there. The salt from Ston and Pag is the purest from the Mediterranean Sea.
During the three weeks we also did do some job on the house, we are not quite ready yet but it is approaching. But we were out on excursions as well, we went to Dubrovnik one evening and took the cable car up to the mountain which is just above.
From there it was fantastic views over Dubrovnik and after sunset we went down to Old Town took an ice cream or 2 ;) and went home. I will be blogging more from our holiday in croatia the coming days. But this time, only images from Dubrovnik;)

Click on a picture to enlarge Them.

Old Town from the mountain

Part of the old town

Dubrovnik

From the mountain and lokrum island behind

Innland mountains

Stradun in Old Town

Stradun the main in street in Old Town

Stradun guards ;) not the sharpest picture ;)

Stradun in evening

Sunset from the Mountain