CarreraS

Beach = Swim ? Or is it too cold ? I trust you're OK, just trapped by rule changes ? cheers, Maurice

Oh Lord .. should I have cancelled ? .. 🤢

But, sooner or later, you'll have to play them ... Mercy, Mercy !!! .. 🙃😲🤑😝

Busy Beach ! 😉

Some good luck this year .. didn't begin well tho' ! Back in early June I noticed an unfamiliar bird nesting in the rose trellis alongside the front door, which I thought was a garden warbler. There were at least four small eggs which were bluish white with brown mottling. With the postman and other deliveries, she (assumption) would zoom off, but hatched them all successfully. I consulted a local ornithologist, who identified it as a Spotted Flycatcher, and was very pleased to know about it. Here she is at the nest .. (Z7 / FTZ / 300 2.8 + TC20 iii tripod) However, disaster struck and the chicks were all predated by an unknown culprit. Adult disappeared. For some reason I kept an eye on the nest, a couple of days later there was a new egg, then another 'til there were four. I found myself developing huge admiration for this little bird .. and determined to help her succeed. To cut a long story short, she hatched all four again, and I then decided to protect the nest, using some chicken wire to fashion a dome over the nest. She adapted to this immediately, popping in and out through the mesh. Well, it worked like a charm, much to my relief, and the last one fledged last Friday .. I managed some hand held macro shots while it was doing pre-flight checks .. (Z7 / FTZ / Sig 180 2.8 Macro) Get the size of the chick ! They were somewhat used to me hanging around by then, and I managed to get the wire off without anyone panicking .. they wouldn't have fitted through it ! Nest is a bit empty now .. ;(( cheers, Maurice

#7 .. awesome !! .. cheers, Maurice

Yes, I just collated all the Ants into one .. 😎

Excellent ! Maybe I should have tried Tasmania .. but I went there on a CMF exercise as a youth, all I remember is the bloody leeches ! Suppose there's no chance ScoMo will stop the logging ? cheers, Maurice

When we tried returning to Australia in 1990, we built a house on 20 acres in the Adelaide Hills near Clarendon. We had Kuitpo forest on one side (endless riding), the McLaren Vale vineyards on the other leading to some of the best beaches in Australia. We would often see wedge-tailed eagles while out riding, and frequently they would sit in trees alongside the track and let us get quite close .. they used the tracks for hunting, as the buzzards do here. Another fabulous bird there was the Sulphur Crested Black Cockatoo, large flocks of them sitting up in the pine trees. You had to be careful, because they would eat the fruity bits of pine cones and chuck the rest, so you'd be riding along with cones thudding the sand around you like mortar bombs ! Raptor persecution is a big issue here now (particularly with grouse shooting), which I inadvertently got involved in when I found my neighbour about to blast the active nest of a Red Kite .. here's the male over my house .. D4, Sig 120-300 @300 f5.6 iso 400 handheld arms aching The female on the nest .. D800E 400 f2.8 @ f8 TC20Eiii 1/500 iso 400 tripod from driveway cheers, Maurice

Does blowing in your ear make your hair stand up ?

Get your fill here !! https://www.antanddec.com/ Just be grateful they're not all on the same show .. Chris, I just checked .. Ant Middleton British soldier Description Anthony Middleton is a British former soldier, adventurer and television presenter. He is best known as the Chief Instructor on the Channel 4 television series SAS: Who Dares Wins. Middleton also appeared as the captain in the adventure/reality-show Mutiny and the survival show Escape. Wikipedia First Man In by Ant Middleton | Waterstones www.waterstones.com › book › ant-middleton In this fascinating, exhilarating and revealing book, Ant speaks about the highs and gut-wrenching lows of his life - from the thrill of passing Special Forces ... etc etc Dallas, Couldn't you get Me and Mike in the shot as well ? You're not trying hard enough ! cheers, Maurice

Whoops ! Broadband bouncing again .. ;( .. I can't tell you much about Ant & Dec, but they hosted a few shows aimed at the same idiot audience Clarkson does. One of them smashed up his car while drunk and blew both careers for a while, one of them was Special Forces and wrote (or maybe co-wrote) an inspiring motivational book - might have been one & the same ! J directed proceedings vigorously ! cheers, Maurice

Excellent ! cheers, Maurice

I have the PD strap kit on my Z7 from the fundraiser (with upgrades) .. even bought the binocular clip ! And my old 055 makes a good mic stand, after I replaced it with the chunky Feisol Tournament carbon jobby ! And the big Gitzo monopod that's done several African trips as in my cameo ! Prefer Wine, Women and Music tho' .. 😉

And then there's the coffee table .. The Cartier Bresson is a recent facsimile edition - really excellent ! Yann Artus-Bertrand got me going on horses ! J gave me the Zanele Muholi - you might have seen her stuff, Dallas ? Nick Brandt does some good B&W wildlife work, as long as you can ignore some of the canned border effects .. I picked up the Klimt in Hay on Wye once - always loved his work ! Done sharing ! cheers, Maurice