Mandarin Duck Couple

Yesterday morning I went for a walk through the Botanical Gardens and then to Endcliff Park and there I saw The Mandarin couple.
I had no camera with me but I thought that I will be back there in the evening and hope they are there still there.
Once I went out at evening it was dark clouds in the sky and the rain was close, but it can provide interesting pictures so I continued down to the pond.
The ducks were still there so I picked up the camera equipment, and just then it started to rain and it was a real shower, they 1.5hours that I was there, it was mixed weather. Then it's nice to have a camera equipment that can withstand rain.
It was actually the first time I photographed Mandarin female, I've seen it before but did not have my camera with me.
It was getting dark and the Mandarin couple wanted apparently not stay there overnight so they flew away.
Camera equipment: Nikon 3Ds and nikon 200-400 f4 lens with Kenko 1.4 konverter.

Water vole and more

Some days ago, I was up to Redmires reservoirs I had no plan really, most went there to check if the spring/summer birds has arrived.
And it had happened a lot since last time I was there, there were swallows, little ringed plover, wheatear, skylark, sand martin, snipe and more, but no ring ouzel that I really wanted to see.
However, I went to the place where it is possible to see water voles and there had the thick blanket of snow finally disappeared so much that they dared to come out and eat along the banks. I was lucky enough to get close to a female I think, because it was very large and because of the size a think she has babies inside her.
I followed it for a while before my legs began to go numb, to squat a long time is not good. :))

Hike in High Peak District

Yesterday, me and my wife, took the train to Edale which is located in the middle of the Peak district NP.
Edale is a very popular area for hikers, mountain bike riders, hang gliders, runners and more.
Kinder plateau which is reached after a relatively short walk is quite unspoiled because it is a large flat moorland and many people would not go there because it is very wet, boggy and difficult to walk.

Here is also the highest peak in the Peak District 636 meters above sea level.
We have tried to walk on the moorland once, and even though we had a map and compass it is easy to get lost there, for there is nothing that you can not orient after.
We just went up to the ridge and followed it for about 6km, we had intended to go all the way to Kinder Downfall which is Peak District's highest waterfall (30m) but the weather changed to rain o bad weather so we skipped it this time.
It also a bit of fun  to walk after the ridges because there is all the cool rock formations to found here and there.
We passed in our opinion, the coolest of them all (Wool Packs) there are all sorts of strange rock formations. Well worth a visit.
From here we went to Jakob's Ladder, it is long man maid rock staircase and back to Edale.
A nice walk of 13km.

Signs of Spring

Yesterday I walked to Rivelin Valley, my idea was that I would shoot dipper and gray wagtail.
But it seems that the dipper will not nest there this year, because I did not see them at all.
There is another thing that shows that they are not in place namely droppings on the rocks, they always leave traces behind and since it has not rained in a long time so it should be a lot of tracks of them.
I think the late snow and cold that came a while ago maybe did them a bit worried and decided to check out another place.
Sadly for me, because I had been looking forward to follow them throughout the summer.
The Grey Wagtail I found in a place which is located quite far away, but they did not seem to have found the nesting place yet, so I do not know where they will end up in the end.
However, I found some sign of spring, the frogs had woken and the males was playing for the females :)) even the flowers down in the ravine had started to come up properly.

 

Crocus

Yesterday I went down to the Botanical Garden to shoot the beautiful crocuses.
In one place where it was most of them, it was probably 12m in diameter so it really looked fantastic.
I tried to shoot them with different lenses, but I thought it was really hard to get a good composition.
Last week it has been really nice spring weather with a +8 in the shade, so it really feels that spring / summer is on the way.
Next week it seems  to be even warmer, with temperatures to +15 :))
This morning I was up to Redmires reservoirs, but there the wind still felt cold and there is also snow in many places.
But a saw many migratory birds such as, Golden Plower, Meadow Pipit, Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe and many more. I also looked after the water vole but it is 1-2m snow in the ditch where they live, so maybe in couple of weeks they are coming out.

Camera equipment: Nikon 3Ds, nikon 50mm f 1.8, 24-70mm f2.8 and tamron macro sp90 Di

Last part of the road trip to Scotland

On sunday morning we left a sunny Isle of Skye to drive towards Loch Ness, but we did not see the Loch Ness monster so we drove on towards the Cairngorms National Park.
We went to Glenmore Forest Park which is located near the village of Aviemore and from there we took the mountain railway up to the mountain cabin which is located at 1024 m above sea level, I was surprised how much snow there was and what a great ski resort it was.
We went up here mostly to take pictures of the view, but my wife and our friend walked the last bit to the top of the mountain, which is also the highest peak in the Cairngorms NP (1309) m above sea level.
I was too thinly dressed and it blew very cold so I stayed near the cabin :))
Lift ticket prices and the like was same as in Sweden, expensive in other words.
Then we drove to Aberdeen that was our last overnight stop. 
But because it still was bright outside, we went to the coast to take photos at a place called Nigg Bay.
On Monday it was just to drive home again, and we also drove through a National Park (Northumberland) but now it was just low hills, and as we have seen everything nice before it felt very boring;))

Loch Morlich and the ski resort in the background

Mountain Cabin 1024m

It is always dangerous with snow



Road Trip To Scotland (Part 2)

We had planned to have the whole day Saturday on the Isle of Skye, which is needed because even though the island is small it takes time to drive around in order to see all the interesting stuff. We did the round trip starting along the east coast towards the north and then down along the west coast.

Along that stretch were 5 top tourist attractions;
- Old Man of Storr, which is known for its weirdly shaped rock pinnacles. But here we just took photos from far way, because we wanted to hike at the next place...
- Quiraing. Here we stopped for a couple of hours to go hike along the pillars and the mountains. The view from here was amazing.
Unfortunately one of the places that we missed after Quiraing was Kilt Rock. We were relying on mobiles a bit to much, and we actually didn't have connection at all except crappy one during lunch on wifi at a pub.
We had a map reader (me) but he missed it ;))
- Anyhow, next stop was Coral Beach, which despite its name is not actually coral but pieces of dessicated and sun-bleached algae's. This is the only "nice" beach on Skye, but who wants to swim here when the average temperature during summer is +14C and approx. the same in air :))
- Just before Coral beach there is a castle Dunvegan, which we also visited. Very nicely located at the sea and have amazing gardens.

Now, it was late afternoon and we had one more visit left 


- Neist Point, which is a lighthouse at the tip of the west side of Skye. Very cool too.
From here you can see the outer Hebrides, which are the last stop before Greenland and Alaska. We stayed here to watch the sunset and again got disappointed when it disappeared behind the clouds.

So that was our day, and now the only thing that remained was to drive back to the hostel and dinner.

To see and do everything should on Skye, you need at least a week. We now just drove around most of the time. There is still so much more to do here, like hiking, fishing, scouting for wildlife as otters, sharks, dolphins, orcas and a lot of birds.

Quiraing

Quiraing

Quiraing

Do u see me on the top the rock formation ;)

Coral Beach

The Old Man of Storr

Neist Point

Neist Point

The Black Cuillin hills

Black Cuillins in the distance

Road Trip To Scotland (Part 1)

Last Thursday (skärtorsdagen) after that wife and a friend finished the work for the day, we started with our trip to Scotland. 
Not drive all the way to the Isle of Skye (which was our most northen destination) but stay the first night at the Lake District NP, to then early on Friday morning drive the last long stretch.
The journey from Sheffield to Skye took about 12hr, but as we slept in the Lake District we only had 8-9h driving on Friday.
The long drive didn't matter as the sceneries were breath taking. Passing through among others the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs NP. The journey goes through valleys and mountain, and sometimes it was down to sea ​​and then again up the mountains. Amazing!
On the mountains the snow was very nicely placed just on the highest peaks, and the weather was beautiful with sunshine and just few degrees above zero.
We arrived to Skye in the afternoon, and as our first stop was Talisker Whisky distellery for a guided tour. Maybe not one of my favorites, as its one of the smokier whiskey on the market, but still a lot of fun to see how its made.

We just had few hours before the sunset which we spent on the southwestern parts of the island. The roads are very very narrow in some places, but as there very little to no traffic it was still fine driving there. Plan was to take sunset-pictures, but unfortunately it was not as nice as it could be.
The trip for the day ended at the hostel after a fine spanish meal :))

Kirkstone Pass, Lake District NP

Ullswater, Lake District NP

Loch Lomond NP

Loch Lomond NP

Highlands

Highlands

Royal Forest, Three Sisters

Isle of Skye west coast (achnacloich)

Achnacloich