dusk – natjtan

Animal Kingdom, Lifestyle, Nature, Photography, Travel

Project Light: Cute Parakeets

14/03/202215/03/2022by natjtan2 Comments

Most of these were taken on the same day in mid January 2022. I think I missed the zoo and didn’t want to go back until it got dark. The light was good, the ducks and parakeets were on the snack hunt and it was warm in the sunshine huddled in layers. Christmas lights while not on were still up looking like spider webs. The light was great for for seeing architecture detail too!

Don’t let the sunny light deceive you, it was cold!

While the geese rule the park, everybody as in the water fowl gets out the way for the white ducks. They’re not afraid to go after any duck, seagull or goose that annoys them.

Everybody gets out the way for the white ducks!

Black headed gulls winter in Barcelona and can be found in Parc de la Ciutadella. As they can take off almost like helicopters they compete for the pan or bread quicker than the ducks. You can see the ducks and geese flinch when they dive around them to get the pan/bread, but will happily if lunge and nip at them if they can. Otherwise they just swim off leaving the humans to feed the seagulls. Black headed gulls are also amazing at catching bread in mid air! I think it’s mostly teenage guys that winter here.

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Animal Kingdom, Nature, Photography, Travel

Project Light: Early-Mid January 2022

28/02/202228/02/2022by natjtanLeave a Comment

The first have of January was so sunny! That’s what I like about January. Within a week of the winter solstice you can notice the days being longer and the light changing. The promise of spring’s coming from the first week of winter! So much and so little can change within a week.

Somewhere near L’Esquirol, Vic, Catalunya

For New Year I got out the city! A little outing up to the Costa Brava for the night before heading to Monestir de Sant Pere de Casserres, an 11th century Benedictine monastery along the Riu Ter/Ter River. We didn’t go to the monastery, just the look out point, Mirador del Ter. Sadly the lookout point’s filled with rubbish from an abandoned restaurant. The path to the look out point’s a little confusing at first with overgrown pavements. Why an overgrown pavement so far away from the road along a dirt track? It all made sense at the now abandoned restaurant.

Mirador de Ter with complete different flora to the coast a little over an hour away

Back in the city where magpies, pigeons, ducks, wagtails, sparrows, seagulls. geese and parakeets/parrots rule the skies. Well maybe not the ducks and geese, but they rule the ponds in Parc de la Ciutadella.

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Animal Kingdom, Lifestyle, Nature, Photography

Light: December’s Winter 2021

14/02/202214/02/2022by natjtanLeave a Comment

December’s one of the hardest months for me. The days just get darker and darker, shorter and shorter. For some reason unless I’m outside after it gets dark, I shut down or just become a couch potato if I’m in after it gets dark. If I’m outside the house I have energy to do stuff. As soon as I get back all that energy and fire I have to do things when I get back literally goes as soon as I walk in the door. I grab snack, shut down. I’m forever working against to stop this. Next month’s book read’s Atomic Habits which I hoping will help break this habit. Well, that’s if I don’t crash before reading it 🙈

Honestly I don’t mind when winter finally arrives. I don’t like the cold, I like the days get longer. I can deal with that. That light the last month of the year as I mentioned in my previous Light Project post is amazing. While I b*tched about the zoo closing earlier it was actually a blessing in disguise. I got out earlier on the days I went so I got to spend more time outside and explore a bit afterwards or even get back earlier (to crash earlier!)! The zoo’s keeping the earlier closing hours until the end of March so I have loads to time to break my shut down habit. She says!

Magpies. These are everywhere in the winter

Anyways, December’s winters light from the winter Solstice until 31st December.

I saw these birds in the summer at the zoo and never saw them again until now. They have like a Mask of Zorro bandits face/headband. They’re so tiny and noisy! After a little research they’re common waxbills native Sub Sahara which is ironic as I’ve only seen them in the Sahara exhibit! There are quite a few groups in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia in Spain.

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Animal Kingdom, Nature, Photography, Travel

Light: Late Autumn

24/01/202214/02/2022by natjtan3 Comments

Happy New Year! Happy Winter!

Could it be that I’m back posting more regularly? Maybe, just maybe.

Last year as for many was a little crazy and disoriented. I don’t even know where last year went. I still took as many if not more photos than usual. Especially of my summer world, under the sea.

While warm springs and hot summers have my heart, cool autumns and what currently feels like summer Artic for winter (it’s super cold this year) hold it for light. The sun’s lower giving warm crisp yet bright cool hazy almost golden hour light all day. Or when it’s sunny. Last autumn was cloudy sunny than bright sunny. Zoo hours have changed, closing an hour earlier than previous years. It’s a little more tricky to make it and when I do, if it’s sunny I get amazing light! Some days the light’s so pretty I don’t to leave. If I find warm sunny sheltered spot with birds and few humans I almost want to freeze time to enjoy it longer. I don’t want to face what’s outside the gates when I leave. Everything feels just right at that moment.

I went to see my Mum and Dad in November. The UK felt a month ahead being further north with morning light. Warm morning golds which are like January mornings here in Spain. Yes, the sun does shine in the UK.

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Animal Kingdom, Animals, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Nature, Photography, Travel

City Wildlife #1

09/11/202008/11/2020by natjtanLeave a Comment

It’s no surprise on Instagram most accounts I follow are nature based. Lots of animals, rescue centres, shelters and organisations, landscapes, the seas and oceans. I get a little envious of golden misty foggy wood scenes as I grew up in the countryside. However I equally get envious, maybe more of beautiful seas and oceans waves and shorelines.

This year when out, more so at the zoo I tried to take less non zoo resident photos otherwise my photos are almost the same repeat each week. I look for the light, parrots, ducks at the park, birds flying, trees, nature cityscapes while trying to avoid taking photos of humans. Sometimes I don’t mind humans in them. If I can I like the focus on nature. She’s the star of this planet. Anyways, wildlife from July at the Barcelona Zoo, at the park: Parc de la Ciutadella , in the city.

Wrong camera speed. Wherever Mama duck went, they went. It was so cute when they started diving with their bums sticking up out the water

I think a crane nesting above an enclosure

I watched him/her land on the leaf and as soon as I said thank you silently for letting me take their photo, it flew away

This summer I saw so many butterflies! Colourful ones at the zoo. White ones while running along with dragonflies. A few moths too and hardly any mosquitos!!! I think mosquitos only bite me when they’re desperate however this year the apartment was almost free of them. That doesn’t mean I didn’t escape not being bit by bugs this summer. It’s almost as if the mosquitoes knew and let the other bug have its go. On holiday I got bite by a tick which got infected, ending up in ER as it wasn’t clearing up. The night before going in the skin around it started to swell up. The doctors were closed and I didn’t want to chance it over the weekend. A course of antibiotics cleared it up and I’ll be left once the redness has gone down another white patch of non pigmented skin to join the other assorted bites and cuts white patches.

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