In for the kill

Must be seen larger - See more detail here

This young buzzard was hunting rabbits that were out sunning themselves, nibbling on the wild herbs and grass, it was fascinating to watch the lethargic wheeling of the buzzard that turned, rapidly, into a soaring dive onto the sandy soil where the rabbits have dug their warren.

The kill didn't materialise this time as one of the watch-rabbits gave the alarm-call just as the buzzard was winding up it's swooping decent and all of the rabbits scurried away to safety.

It's been a day of sunshine and showers - burning hot sun then monsoon-like torrential rain.
With this in mind, honourable son N°2 and I went for a walk down to the lakes to get my blip - wearing shorts and tee-shirts.
The sun was so hot and the sky so blue when we got out of the car, we both decided to leave our rain gear in the car - I mean, it's only sensible isn't it!

When we got to the last lake, the farthest away from the car on this walk, (about 2 Km away) the sky started turning grey - I suggested that we may be in for a soaking ... just to lift morale, you understand ...

After about another 100 meters it just bucketed it down - within a minute or so we were absolutely soaked, so we decided to shelter under some trees, which worked really well - the leaves collecting the fine raindrops, turning them into huge droplets which soaked us further.

I tried to shield my camera and lens as best I could under my sodden tee shirt.

Afte a while we decided to head back to the car - no point running as we couldn't get any wetter - when we finally arrived at the car it was back to burning sun, which was throwing up huge clouds of steam on the footpath and the road where the water was being condensed - remember that at school kids ... condensation - precipitation ...

I was ready to go back again and do another circuit of the lakes, but Hon. Son N°2 had to be at a friend's house for the afternoon - so we left.

The target bird for today was a hoopoe - which we didn't see, but which was surely out on the short cropped grass, scratching away for worms.

The teens have all returned to their respective homes and Hon. Son. N°1 is fast asleep on his bed .... lightweight ... takes after his mother ... ;)