Buzzard Mantling

An extremely cold and frosty start to the day. The water that has been flowing down the lane since last week's rain, was silenced as ice this morning. 
The moors had had another sprinkling of snow but we decided to avoid the inevitable crowds and headed to lower ground.

As we started our walk of the 'Lustleigh Circuit', we disturbed a buzzard which had just caught something.
By the time I had retrieved my camera from the backpack it had flown up to the lower branches of an old tree and was mantling.
It's a messy image with all the intertwining branches but it's all I've got again.

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a 5 day online photo challenge with Wigan 10 member E J Lazenby *

https://www.ejlazenbyphotography.co.uk/


Today was the last day so I've spent a few hours this afternoon watching the five videos of the accomplished photographer editing a horse image.
Technically I was up to speed with day 1-3 but have learnt a lot from the later demos.
Even if horses aren't your thing I recommend you have a look at her website.

I've haven't been very disciplined with Blip of late, both uploading daily images and visiting other journals. 
With the start of the new year I hope to put this right.
In the meanwhile Jorgie and I would like to wish you all a safer, happier, healthier year ahead and hoping we get back to a more sociable lifestyle in the not too distant future.
             
                          HAPPY NEW YEAR x