Farmland fancies

Early evening near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.


... dinner time

Israel - Tel Aviv

Hoopoe. A surprise find, and very obliging bird, early one morning along the beach near Jaffa.

Hula

Clouds of Common Crane's sweeping in over the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. Total bird count was reported at 32,000!

Formation flying

Fishing king's

Pied...looking for lunch at Agmon Hula
Common...taking a breather

White-throated...

Israel

Images from a recent trip to the Holy Land...

Preparing for take-off - Grey Heron


Blacks and Whites - Storks and Spoonbills

Jay - ssp atricapillus (thanks to Amir for the use of his Binyamina garden)

Pond-dipping....

Black Stork

Wrestling with lunch - Cattle Egret

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Spur-winged Plover

Laughing Dove's at Ma'agan Mikhael

Dungeness Dolphins

We enjoyed watching this school of around 8 dolphins for about half an hour, playing just off the surf-line off the pebble beach at Dungeness; presumably attracted close inshore by the warm water outfows from the nearby nuclear power station, the only blot on an otherwise gloriously desolate landscape.

My limited attempts to identify these mammals suggest they are most likely bottle-nosed dolphins, which are not uncommon in this area.

In the Shadow of The Moon

Total solar eclipse on 22 July 2009. Images taken from Hangzhou, China. Unfortunately, the anticipated cooling of the air temperature during totality was hardly noticable in the humid 40'C early morning heat.

Composite image centred on totality, showing the slender crescent Sun before and after the diamond ring.

3rd contact and the diamond ring effect.

At 20,000 degrees the chromosphere (red lower atmosphere of the Sun) makes a brief appearance at 3rd contact, signalling the end of totality. At 2 O'clock is a solar prominence, itself the size of planet Earth.

The diamond ring at second contact.

Sunlight shining through valleys at the edge of the Moon - an effect commonly known as Bailey's Beads.

Some new friends....

At the end of totality, the thin crescent Sun creeps into view.
At 2 million degrees, the pearly light of the inner corona embraces the silhouetted Moon.

The Nearest Star

Our nearest star - the Sun. Currently near the end of solar minimum, activity on the surface is unusually low. Photographed on 5th July, the visible sunspot group (#1024) heralds the start of solar cycle #24.

Japan

Meadow Bunting, Asian House Martin, Eurasian Skylark (japonica sub-sp) and Oriental Turtle Dove, all imaged on a damp early morning in Chiba Newtown, Tokyo.

Nightjar

Lazing in the afternoon sun, this very obliging Nightjar seemed oblivious to the growing crowds at The Lodge RSPB headquarters.

Barford birding

A few images from Great Barford bridge. The cropped Grey Wag shot was the best I could get after several minutes of low level stalking. I had hoped for a closer picture - sadly, my efforts were thwarted by the herd of disgruntled cows that chased me, closely followed by the wagtail, out of the field.

More Kites

A few more images of the Watlington Red Kites.

Neighbouring Worlds

A few images of more distant worlds....

A mosaic of the lunar Southern highlands. The planet Saturn imaged back in January 2006, showing subtle hints of cloud belts and the Cassini division in the marvellous rings, and two images of Mars during the 2005 opposition, showing the Northern polar cap and subtle dusky terrain.