Go West

Just a quicky for me, I am all packed and ready for an early start to head west to San Francisco via Dallas, Looks like i will be leaving 80+ degrees and heading for 60+, I just hope that it stays dry, So whats on the list-well firstly Eared Grebes would be nice, I know a lake where they have been lately and its not too far from where i will be staying-fingers crossed as they will be a new specie for me, Avocets in breeding colours are always a treat and i hope for a day or so out on the sea in a kayak for sea otters-thats all dependant on the weather but i really enjoy seeing and photographing then so i am sure it will happen, I will also be meeting up with one of our blog readers which will be nice-more of that later next week
So the batteries are charged and the sensors have had a quick clean, I love California as there is just so much to shoot

Dave

Tranquility of a Spring evening in the UK

In a sharp contrast to Dave's recent posts about the effects of nature in the US with the terrible scenes from his part of the world, life couldn't be more contrasting here in the UK.....or at least in my part of the world.

At just about the same time, Dave and Marian were out helping clear the debris and destruction, Jacqui and I went out to one of our local Warwickshire Wildlife Trust reserves a couple of evenings ago.

What a stunning time we had for a remarkable hour as the last of the sun was going down.

The woods were alive with Bluebells (early this year), Wood Anemone, Yellow Archangel, Red Campion and Wild Garlic.  The smells and colours were stunning.

The sounds of the birds were wonderful too.  Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Robin, Chiff Chaff, Blackbird, Blue Tit and Wren were all letting us know of their presence.  In the distance the drumming of Great Spotted Woodpecker and the loud yaffles of Green Woodpecker drew us to get a sighting of a pair of each.

A Roe Deer leapt out of the undergrowth in surprise, probably to all three of us.

Moving out towards the River Avon, a Mallard and her six chicks were scurrying across the flow, while a little further downstream the electric neon blue flash of a Kingfisher drew our eyes and binoculars as it tracked dart like along the river.

What a wonderful experience for an hour after supper.

Now is the time of the year when our countryside is alive, bustling with new life, sounds and smells.  Make sure you make the effort to get out there an enjoy - it is worth it.

We took the little Pansonic P & S and binocs only - sometimes it is great to just go light, look and watch and enjoy rather than stressing over that next vital shot.

Camo camera bodies

Funky new idea by Pentax seen here The Camo looks pretty cool, I am guessing that the Tower Records rainbow version is for Canon/Mac users-lol

Dave

The awesome power of mother nature

I have mentioned a couple of times that last Saturday the South and East USA got hit by some mighty big storms which yielded a huge amount of Tornado's, North Carolina had twice as many in that 1 day than it normally does in 1 year, The TV was on as it was happening and we tracked the main storms in our area by watching the Doppler radar on my laptop, The biggest storm in our area come up highway 1 and hit South Raleigh dropping a tornado there then lifting and going up the main strip of capital boulevard before continuing up highway one where it again touched down and caused all kinds of devastation right up to the coast and into Virginia, The storm had a huge amount of power behind it which is unknown in this area, We knew how lucky we were by the scenes on the TV, Yesterday (Wednesday) we offered a school in the Southern Raleigh area our help to get the kids back in a safe environment, Its only 10 miles or so as the crow fly's from where we live, Its quite a poor neighborhood and that seems to always be where the most damage is done, There were lots of people turned out to help and when things where getting sorted i was told that a few streets away the real nightmare was, I popped down for a look and boy was i shocked, In just a few streets the full impact came to light as nearly every house in that small area was damaged, Not just a few fences or shingles removed but completely totaled, The tornado that came through was a F3 so winds over 130mph, This is a heavily populated area and its incredible when you see the damage that nobody there lost their lives, A lot of the cleanup was well under way with trees already cut up or in the process of being cut and removed but it still looked awful and i cant imagine how scary it must have been when all those trees started to crash down, The older houses seem to have big trees surrounding and very close to them, I think its to give shade and keep out the direct summer sun and help cool the house and this was the problem last Saturday as most trees that fell or were snapped off hit a house, Lots of tree fellers in the area clearing the way so that the power guys can get in an get these people some electricity-the ones in livable homes anyways

 Damage to local stores

 Local Cisco employees helping out at the school

All images taken with a Nikon D7000 and 24-70 which is a great walk around kit, Its very important for a photographer to carefully document these scenes of devastation as although its now yesterdays news for the TV companies, For the people affected its a life changer that will go on for some time

Dave

Canon 7D Firmware updates

Windows users
Mac Users

Garden Flora

So this year my wildlife garden enters its third growing season and it will be exciting to see what flowers will come up this year.

Already we have Speedwell, Bluebells, White Clover, Purple Deadknettle, Cuckoo Pint, Cowslip, Common Vetch and Common Tare.  Most of the hedgerow plants survived the bitter winter although some of the tops have died out and have been cut back.

I have reseeded round the hide  oops I mean pergola/love seat and that is starting to show life know.  Just need it to hurry up and get walkable so I can start shooting the birds in the reflection pool.

The Marsh Marigold has flowered beautifully and now going over, and early signs of Foxglove, Teasel and Campion are now appearing.

Last year in June, I did buy a native Orchid, a Common Spotted which I blogged about here,

I have been wondering whether it was going to make it back this year and when I got home from work on Monday evening I saw this.

So I am thrilled that is back and look forward to seeing it in all its beauty in a few weeks time.

Tornado images

Most of the south USA was hit by severe weather last weekend-here are some images showing the devastation left behind,
I live in Raleigh North Carolina and there are images in there from just a few miles of my house

Dave

Computer Maintenance

We seem to spend more time behind the PC now than in the field and when a PC slooooows down its a real pain in the butt, There are a couple of things that you can do to make sure that your PC is running as good as it can get and thats-

1,Use a good Anti Virus/malware software to stop the bastards that want to corrupt and cause nightmares to everybody in the world who has a PC, I use Trend Micros and so far with fingers crossed its been excellent

2. I use Ccleaner to clean my C drive and keep it clean from all the little bits of data that get left behind when deleting stuff and also cleaning my registry, You will be amazed how much space you get back after using it-hundreds of megabites and its free
When you first open it click on the analyze button and it will tell you all the crap that you have on your drive, then simply click the 'run cleaner' and in a few seconds it all gone, It cleans your temporary internet files,cache,history etc, The click on the registry button on the left and click on 'scan for issues' this goes deeper into your system and tells you all the stuff thats been left behind after deleting etc,and then click the' fix issues' it will ask if you want to do a back up and i always do just incase,  I have never had a problem but you never know and after you know that your drive is clean

3 Defrag your drive as data is stored all over your C drive and this will put it in some kind of order and speed things up-DO NOT defrag a SSD drive, I use Defraggler which again is free, This will take some time to do so i tend to do mine and leave it over night

So just by doing some house keeping to your PC you can keep it running smoothly and as fast as it can go

Dave