First steps...

After a morning spent writing a report, I picked Chris up from his girlfriend's house and took him to Ring Haw to do his second set of water beetle sampling. The morning rain had cleared, leaving a rather cool and breezy afternoon. I'd been looking forward to the chance to have a quiet wander round with my camera while he was working, but in the end I struggled a bit to find subjects. Very few insects were flying and for some reason I was struggling to take macro shots, although the wind and intermittent sunshine also played their part.

Rosie and I were standing next to some blackthorn at the edge of the reserve, when I heard a rather unusual mooing from the adjacent field. It was a Highland cow who had a calf lying on the ground next to her. The bull came to the fence and checked us out, obviously concerned to protect his family, but soon decided we were harmless and sauntered back towards the cow and calf. I stayed to watch the family and quickly realised that the calf was new born and had not yet stood up. Here it's taking those first rather wobbly steps, with the umbilical cord still clearly visible.

By the time Chris had finished his sampling I realised that I was going down with a cold, my throat feeling as though it was on fire.I suspect this was part of the reason why the photography hadn't gone well. I've just about managed to avoid a full-blown cold all winter - how typical of one to strike just as the first busy week of the field season is coming up!