'The Scream'

It rained the entire night and it was still raining when I left the house at 4:30am. It was quite difficult to see anything clearly when I rode my bicycle to the sanctuary because the street lights and headlights of cars reflected in the rain on my glasses but thankfully there were only a few other people on the road and I got there safely.

After a head count to see who was staying for breakfast afterwards we set off on our 3 hour long walk a little after 5am. About half way into it the rain finally stopped but it stayed overcast for the rest of it and it only started to get somewhat brighter when we had finished our breakfast. Everyone else left the sanctuary but just like last year I did the whole walk again alone in the reverse direction.

On the group walk I'd only been able to take quick shots with the Nikon but during the walk on my own I was able to also take shots of various subjects with the Canon DSLR. Because I was walking at a slower pace this time I could also spot things that we hadn't seen on the group walk, like 2 Great Tit's and 1 Blue Tit's nesting sites. The sun eventually appeared and so did a lot of insects. It till felt quite chilly thought because of the wind that kept blowing.

It was very difficult to decide which one to blip out of the total of just over 300 photos of birds, insects, flowers and views that I'd taken at the reserve. I almost posted one of a group of cows but finally decided to blip this shot of a tree that bears such a strong resemblance to the face in the famous painting by Edvard Munch that it has been named 'The Scream' tree.

I have an aching back and very sore feet and legs now and I also feel too tired to worry about the appointment tomorrow morning at 9:10am. I only wish that I didn't have to get at 7am!

Thank you so much for the kind comments and stars on my Magnolia flower blip from yesterday.