Wednesday, January 01, 2014

A half century....

Happy New Year all.

Today is a bit special for me in that it is my birthday, the one where I reach a half century. Where has the time gone?


It doesn't seem like 40 odd years since other living beings became my obsession. At this age, above, it was catching butterflies, small mammals in sunken sweet jars and minnows in the river, or looking for birds nests that took up every daylight hour. God knows where I got the Rook from...

So, continuing on a theme, I started my 2014 bird list locally. The first species added was a Tree Sparrow calling outside the bedroom window even before I got up, closely followed by Dunnock and Woodpigeon .
Due to ever deteriorating weather, the days tally ended on a very moderate 29 species, around the garden and village.

 
This Blackbird is one of the first photos taken with my new toy, a Canon 700D ( a very unexpected present from my better half). Given a few weeks practise in better light (and with some help from my friends cos I'm clueless) there should be a few more bird shots illustrating the blog to compliment the notes and sketches...

Cheers!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Stewart. It`ll be my half century this year, as well.

Looking forward to seeing the results you get with your new camera (lucky sod!!!) as the year & your experience progresses.

Warren Baker said...

Been there and done the ''fifty'' last year Mate!

Its just like being 40 :-)

Not saying i'm an expert, but any advice I can give for the photography, just let me know.

The Hairy Birder said...

Happy Birthday Stewart! 1964 must be a good vintage as I am fifty this year as well!

Cheers,

Seumus

Lee Dingain said...

Happy Birthday fella, and keep up the great blog!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Stewart,Great blog I really enjoy reading it.

Stewart said...

Warren - What settings do you use?

Seamus - Yes definately, like a fine wine.

Lee / Matthew - Cheers will do.

Steve Gale said...

We're you that kid in the film Kes? Happy Birthday old timer...

Stewart said...

Could have been!

Stringer said...

Happy birthday Stewart !

If you want to talk cameras just give me a buzz. I went through the same process a year ago, I'm certainly no expert but I've got mine set up to pretty much point and shoot now. Seems to work ok most of the time.

abbey meadows said...

Happy birthday Stew
Card is in the post unless it arrived yesterday. Nice present, looking forward to the pics. Hope to catch up soon

Nigel

Stewart said...

Gary - Cheers, will do!

Nige - Yes thanks it came, thank you...You might wait a while for good images...