29/10: TEST DRIVING NEW CAMERA

I've not had the chance to study the online manual for the new camera so haven't a clue about all the functions.   Its a Panasonic FZ200 - a 'bridge' camera (fills the niche between the single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs) and the Point-and-shoot cameras) so I haven't got a sackload of lenses and equipment to tote around but it has a lot of dials and buttons I need to understand.   

We drove out to a local Nature Reserve yesterday, me armed with the new camera and David using my old (much loved one) to do some comparative shots.    This Nature Reserve has the largest reed bed in the South East of England.  It has lots of wet grassland and open water providing a safe habitat for breeding/wintering birds and water voles and is host to some rare plants.    It was a very cold/windy day and after the recent heavy rains the trails were very muddy/boggy but the Reserve was peaceful and tranquil - and very beautiful.

We met 2 couples (one with dog) during our afternoon - we really had the place to ourselves despite it being midday/early afternoon - usually a favourite time for Sunday walkers.   We'll definitely be going back, hopefully at different times of day so we can see a wider variety of birds (I'm particularly keen to see Kingfishers).

Here's a selection of photos - all taken with the dial set to AUTO so I didn't have to do anything but point and shoot :-)

Part of the 'crowd' 

Bottoms Up!!     Rich pickings in this stretch of water obviously

Beautiful Swans

2 headed version??

You can see how wet the 'wetlands' are ... but very pretty

To help manage the grasslands localfarmers graze cattle to keep the grass short.  There are also Konik ponies on the Reserve but we didn't see the ponies yesterday.

 I was really chuffed to see this woodpecker - a true test of the zoom lens as I couldn't tell what sort of bird it was when it landed in the grass.  It was too far away to distinguish any markings/colours.  You may recall that David and I rescued a juvenile woodpecker which was fluttering around in the road back in July - I've re-posted the photo under this.   I hope the youngster made it and now looks like this adult

 the juvenile

Think that's enough for now ... I took far too many photos but having compared these with similar views taken by David on the old camera, mine are clearer and the new camera is much faster to 'fire up' and focus etc.    Just have to master all the functions now ...