Bottoms up!

All my photos today were taken in the dark! This evening I went to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust reserve at Welney to see the floodlit swan feed. The swans are not tame, they are wild but come to the observatory for feeding by a warden with the wheelbarrow of seed. At the height of winter there are about 10,000 Whooper and Bewick swans on the reserve. See some of them in the extra pic.
At 5.30am I was out in the garden - thick white frost - in my PJs and dressing gown trying out Emma Davies' exercise to push the camera's ISO setting to the max and see what we could get. I got the star constellation of the Plough using ISO 25600 and 1second at f4. Converting it to B&W reduced the noise considerably. At 6.30am - well before dawn, but with some light appearing to the east - I took (among many others) the final extra which is the view over the back fence taken using ISO 20000, 1 second at f3.5 - remember, this was taken when it was still dark!
None of the pictures are particularly good - but all show what can be done in less than ideal conditions.with modern digital technology.