Mauled by a fox?

A swan at the local lakes appeared to have had a worse night than me. I didn't sleep well, hence the early visit to the lakes, but the swan appeared to have been mauled by something - at first I assumed a dog off the lead, but given the feathers and blood everywhere behind a fence & away from public access, I can only assume it was a fox, or there is a remote chance of a mink.

RSPCA were called and it has been taken to a swan sanctuary for some treatment and rehab. much to the annoyance of it's mate. I hope they are reunited soon.

Gone fishing.....

.... the last day of my week off, and I chose to go to Rooksbury Mill Lakes wildlife reserve again, this time more to see.

Kingfisher was out at his usual spot at 4:30 on the dot, sadly the perch has a twig obscuring the bird from the most convenient vantage point, so another will have to be found.

On the lake, a Great Crested Grebe has returned for the spring & summer seasons, today it was tucking into Perch and baby Pike!

Something good.....

.... or something bad is going to happen, which will it be?

Is this light emerging from the cloud in a god like ray? Or is it a dark cloud of gloom descending upon us?

I suppose we will just have to wait & see.

If I read my Horoscope (which I used to do every day, but really never believed any of it and have now given up wasting the time reading them) then something good is about to happen....

Solace......

..... in a tree.

Seems the only place this Heron could find peace and quiet away from the dog walkers and kids on bikes at the weekend at Rooksbury Mill Lakes was in this tree.

Not the best light, but I thought a nice silhouette would be interesting.

Canon 1Ds Mk III + EF600mm f4 + EF1.4x Extender.

Old kit for new....

I have traded in a load [and I do mean a lot!] of old\not used that often kit to acquire one of these.... a Canon EF600mm f4 L IS USM lens. So gone are the old EOS digital bodies that I couldn't bare to trade in for crap money in the past on smaller items, gone are the TS-E lenses, the EF180mm macro lens and the very old EOS 5 film bodies and associated flash units.

Once again I have assured myself that if turns out to be too heavy to lug around [it weighs in at 11.8 lbs!] or I find I don't put it to good use often enough it can be sold for very good money. I have done the usual refurb with Canon paint to cover up the inevitable chips, so it looks like new again. I will endeavour to find a manual on ebay, it will then be complete & as new, probably making it worth quite a bit more that I paid for it.

So far I have found it to be an exceptional piece of kit, it does weigh a lot more than the EF500mm, but with the 1.4x Extender attached the EF600mm comes in at fully functioning autofocus 840mm f5.6 on a 1Ds Mk III or close to 1100mm on an EOS 40D.