Avoiding The Heat

This last week the temperatures have soared with new records being established.The South has had the highest of the temperatures when it has been around 100 degrees in old money. Here in the north it has still been less hot but still well up in the eighties.I personally don't like this sort of heat so I have been going out at first light around sunrise at 5am when it was still around seventy degrees but much more manageable.I have been out early on three occasions into Bowland to see what wildlife I could find.

It was wonderful driving on traffic free lanes and roads in this beautiful part of Lancashire.The wildlife was also good with sightings of owls,deer,stoats and brown hares.I saw two barn owls and two little owls.Unfortunately I failed to get images of the little owls as I had a problem with camera settings.The barn owl images are only record shots but I will be back to rectify my images.Much better results were obtained with the roe deer.The female in particular posed beautifully as I hid behind a roadside wall.The roebuck image wasn't easy as light and position were not easy.Of course the brown hares are abundant and are actively feeding early morning in the dew laden grass and always provide excellent photographic opportunities.

I have also included some images of the sunrise and splendid Bowland scenery.You will notice in image seven the mist in the valleys below and it was a wonderful experience to see Bowland at it's best on these early Summer mornings.Thanks for looking in and I will be back soon with more efforts from my camera.It looks like the very hot weather is on it's way out as normal service has resumed with a wet weekend ahead. PS I forgot to mention the final image of a barn owl having a close encounter with a car.It was ok and flew off to survive another day.