Sparkie's Junkyard » animals

The Rest of Christmas

Sparkie — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:50:37 +0000

Slight oxymoron that one, as Christmas was very busy for us both. Boxing Day saw me blast up the A1 to Huddersfield to meet Sonya’s cousins, catch up with Andy from her lab and meet up with some of her schoolfriends, then it was back to Loddon for another round of dinner parties. We made it to the New Year, when we staggered to a little cottage near Bury St Edmunds to recover before going back to work. I can definitely recommend The Old Manse Barn if you’re looking for a comfortable and well-looked after break.

Christmas Day wildlife

Sparkie — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 22:41:09 +0000

It’s hardly a secret that I like taking photos of animals. My parents have been carefully feeding the garden birds for several years now, and that makes my life easy. Standing at the back door I managed to take quite a collection of pictures. There are captions for those who need their memories jogged, or who don’t know their great tits from their blue-footed boobies…

Happy Christmas

Sparkie — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00:05 +0000

Christmas hasn’t quite come early for Billy the cat, he’s left with nothing but a empty, poultry-flavoured, box and an expectant look on his face.

Have a good one everybody!
Love,
Rob

Blue tit

Sparkie — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:29:21 +0000

Seen this weekend, click to enlarge.

Minolta 500mm f/8 reflex lens, 1/250 s at ISO 1600

Montpellier

Sparkie — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 11:23:53 +0000

Scientific conferences: everyone thinks they’re just glorified booze-ups but more often than not you spend nine or ten hours a day sitting in stuffy rooms in a concrete box located in an industrial complex in the suburbs of a city you would never have visited if you had the choice. Luckily I spent last week in Montpellier, where they have beaches, sunshine and 30C. Yet somehow I still managed to spend nine or ten hours a day being bored, confused or, occasionally, inspired. Now Last week was the Euromat conference, during which I pretended to be a materials scientist and learned about composites, hip replacements, solar cells, railway line degradation and hundreds of talks about carbon nanotubes. This week, I’m doing it all again. Geology replaces materials, but the rain of Switzerland replaces the French sunshine. More on this later, once the freezing cold and shocking prices have properly kicked in.

In the mean time, here are some photos from Montpellier.

Asher’s graduation

Sparkie — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:07:03 +0000

Straight after the holiday it was time to head to Bristol to watch Sonya’s little brother graduate, and to pop to the zoo, as one does at these occasions.

Sydney the snake

Sparkie — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:15:59 +0000

Mum – I hope you don’t mind me posting your photo!

Not content with herons using the pond as a takeaway, there’s now a grass snake popping by to nibble on the fishes and frogs.

Parakeet – a pretty pest?

Sparkie — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:45:44 +0000

A recent newspaper report said that wild parakeets were a danger to British wildlife. Escaped (or carelessly released) into a reasonably warm environment, with plentiful food and nesting opportunities, they’re larger than many garden birds and could outcompete our native species. I’d find it hard to shoot this little guy though, seen in the garden over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Hamster, plus new lens

Sparkie — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:22:53 +0000

My parents have bought me a lovely new lens for Christmas, a Minolta 100mm macro built back in 1985! Playing with the hamster sounded like a good way to give it a test.

London Zoo

Sparkie — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:50:17 +0000

For Adam’s birthday we wen’t to the zoo. With five cameras between 10 of us, hundreds of photos ensued, but I’ve only found a couple of Ian’s so far. This highlights one of the main failings of digital cameras – we take loads, but never show or share them with each other. I’ll do my bit though, here are some of my least worst: