Scottish Reptiles

During a trip to Culloden I almost trod on a lizard whilst walking around the battlefield. Yes, a Scottish lizard, about 3 inches long.

In my Scottish Wildlife challenge (that failed and fell by the wayside) I had obtained a list of all Scotland's indigenous species from Visit Scotland but after finding the lizard I couldn't remember any reptiles being on the list.

However, here is a site with information on Scotland's 3 reptile species - Scottish National Heritage

Here are a couple of photos of the little creature.

The red stone is a bit unfortunate as it looks like a giant tongue. The lizard would not move, though, and I didn't want to frighten him any more. A couple of quick shots taken then I moved on to give him time to recover and hide before anyone else came along.

A quick half hour with the macro lens

The sun was shining outside so I thought I would put my macro lens on the camera and see what I could find in the garden.
It was windier than I would have liked, the sun kept disappearing behind clouds and using continuous autofocus made things harder rather than easier.
However, I did get a couple of photos taken. I tried out some multi-frame shots and I quite liked the result.

150 years since American Civil War Battle of Antietam

(Photo taken from BBC History: The Scot who shot the American Civil War


Paisley.Org: Alexander Gardner (1821-1882)
N.B. The 1st line should read "...born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland...". I will have to let them know.

South Queensferry

On a whim, we stopped off at South Queensferry and walked along to Hopetoun House. We didn't go to the House because it was late evening by the time we go there but we did walk along the coastline. (Someone I know will be very interested to know that there was a multitude of White Foxgloves along the roadside.)

I only had my Lumix compact with me and the weather wasn't great so I didn't take any great photos. However, I found a terrific spot, on-route, for taking some photos of Forth Rail bridge and I hope to get back out there at night to take some photos if they still light the bridge.

Here is a slightly 'posterised' view of the Forth Road and the Rail bridge from where we were. They look like one single bridge from this angle.

Clydebank Titan Crane

I actually used my DSLR yesterday. It's been too long. I was in Clydebank at night so I thought I would try out some of the 'circles of confusions' style images that I love. The Titan Crane was lovely with it's coat of many colours. If it hadn't been such horrible weather I might have been able to get a reflection of it in the Clyde. (I am unable to insert a 'carriage return' or a new line for some reason - sigh)