Beauty of a weed

Creeping (formerly Canada) Thistle, with a touch of filter added in post-processing.

This was the very first time I had ever visited a particular Osprey nest, though "everyone" else seems to have been : ) The sun came out yesterday, 3 September 2018, but while I was down in the park, some dark clouds came rolling in. Far from good light, but I managed to get a few shots. Ospreys are such beautiful birds and I was lucky that I spotted the first one standing on a street light A second Osprey (juvenile) was standing on the nest, feeding on something that looked like the remains of a fish. I should have checked if they only eat fish before posting the other photo.

One thing I do know is that I would never have been able to take such a close photo with my trusty old Panasonic FZ200. I have used that make and model for several years and have loved using it. However, it has bothered me, especially the last year and a half, that the optical zoom is only 24x (though I used it on 48x) - just not enough reach for tiny or far away birds. A few months ago, I finally gave in and got a Nikon P900. I have only used it a handful of times, but yesterday afternoon I made up my mind to give it a better try. I don't know where all the birds were, other than the two beautiful Osprey! One thing I need to find out as soon as possible is why I couldn't focus on anything that was not far away. No problem with distant things, but when I tried to focus say on a wildflower, I could not get the camera to focus at all. Stood maybe 12-15 feet away and zoomed in and the camera just refused to focus. Tried standing at different distances and nothing worked. A lot to learn, I can tell : )

Hard to believe our very cool temperatures recently! This morning, 4 September 2018, just after 10:30 am, it is only 6C (windchill 4C). A far cry from the record-breaking 36.4C that we had a few weeks ago. It definitely feels and looks like fall has arrived already.