An Oasis in a desert of foul weather.

One bright day in ages, what to do? Thursday had promised some sunshine and did deliver. I met Chris Grady for our prearranged day together in the forest. We had planned to do frogs. Mr G donned his neoprene suit and dropped himself into the water to get those special close ups the like of which he produced last year.

Meanwhile the less well prepared and in all honesty less able of us, namely me, donned our knee protectors and did the best we could. The sun came out and I did get some shots, but the beauty of frogs, in my opinion, is that they take a good photo even in poor light.

This chap, came up and said hello.

Whilst elsewhere in the pond another group of frogs eyed up the females across the way.

"Hey lads, you seen the legs on that frogette over there, cor she's lovely"
"Yeah but she has let herself go a bit, could do with a bit of attention to those spots"
"One of us should go over and say, Hi."
"I heard her and her mate chatting, she was asking how many of us she'd have to kiss before she met her prince......"
"Charming"
"Yeah that was his name, oh yeah I get it....Charming"


This next pic sums up the difference between a sun shining pic and a behind the cloud pic, I was left thinking, if only!

I still like it though. The picture of the session for me though was this one.

It shows perfectly the difference in size between the male and the female. For those of you who aren't familiar with frogs the male is the one being carried and hanging on for grim life.

My friend Brian Williams alludes to the noise of the frogs in his Blog (check the links on here). I want to confirm what he says, the noise is amazing, it truly does sound like scrambler bikes racing in the distance. Truly a special occasion and one that I wouldnt miss every year. I think Chris and I were there for about 3 1/2 hrs and I enjoyed every minute and every strange glance that Chris got from people out walking.

A quick lunch and a well deserved drink at Beechenhurst and we were left scratching our heads for something to follow our morning. Obviously nothing was going to match that so we settled for a few small birds at the arboretum. Here are a nice pair of tits.

Great Tit and then Blue Tit.

The light dsappeared very quickly so forgive me the lack of quality in these pictures.

Looks like the next week is not going to be much better, I hope that this is not a taster for the summer to come.