Eaton Hall revisited.

Last month Sharon and I visited for the first time a garden open day at Eaton Hall, near Chester, which is home to the Duke Of Westminster, the post from that day is HERE, this Sunday just gone the gardens were open again, and we had such a good time in July that again we decided to go along. Now those that know me, will know that I adore photographing wild animals in their natural environment, but I equally enjoy photographing captive animals, as long as they are kept in the right environment. So again I was quite keen to see the Falconry display, by a really nice guy called Terry Large. I got to chat to him on our last visit, so it was nice when he recognised us again, and again this time let me get in close to the birds, and he has since invited us down to his place in north wales, not far from where we live, needless to say I'm quite looking forward to that!  Anyway some shots below from the day, including some of the beautiful fallow deer that roam the grounds, that I hope to get back and photograph during the autumn rutting season. You can read Sharons post of our visit, and see her beautiful painting of one of my previous Harris Hawks photos HERE



The shot below was taken with my new 1.4x converter, at 700mm, quite pleased for a first attempt





Terry Large



The falcons are so difficult to follow and shoot in flight



The owls that fly at a lower more sedate pace are a bit easier





Harris Hawk



And a few close ups









I'm not great on butterflies, but the flowers in the gardens were alive with insects, not sure what this is if anyone can help?



This is a Tortoiseshell I think



That's about it from the display, writing this post this morning has been a bit of relief, my dad is quite poorly in hospital, and its been nice to be able to divert my attention for a short while, but its back to the hospital in a while, bye for now
Gary