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(full colour mix) Coleyville country. ...from an Easter Monday drive with Ernie to Rosevale, via Coleyville, and up the Kerwitz Road. Ernie is 91 and retired from his diary farm in the area about 34 years ago. There are changes in farmers' approaches in the area as the diary industry structurally adjusts to a modern economy. There are very few diary farms left. Most of the land has been given over to beef cattle (as with this one), horse studs and hobby farms. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen...
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Dartford Warbler - Sylvia Undata
The Dartford warbler (Sylvia undata) iDs a typical warbler from the warmer parts of western Europe and northwestern Africa. It is a small warbler with a long thin tail and a thin pointed bill. The adult male has grey-brown upperparts and is dull reddish-brown below except for the centre of the belly which has a dirty white patch. It has light speckles on the throat and a red eye-ring. The sexes are similar but the adult female is usually less grey above and paler below.
Its breeding range lies west of a line from southern England to the heel of Italy (southern Apulia). The Dartford warbler is usually resident all year in its breeding range, but there is some limited migration.
The Dartford warbler was first described by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant from two specimens that were shot in April 1773 on Bexley Heath near Dartford in Kent.
The species is naturally rare. The largest European populations of Sylvia undata are in the Iberian peninsula, others in much of France, in Italy and southern England and south Wales. In Africa it can be found only in small areas in the north, wintering in northern Morocco and northern Algeria.
In southern England the birds breed on heathlands, sometimes near the coast, and nest in either common gorse (Ulex europaeus) or common heather (Calluna
Dartford warblers are named for Dartford Heath in north west Kent, where the population became extinct in the early twentieth century. They almost died out in the United Kingdom in the severe winter of 1962/1963 when the national population dropped to just ten pairs. Sylvia undata is also sensitive to drought affecting breeding success or producing heath fires, as occurred during 1975 and 1976 in England when virtually all juveniles failed to survive their first year.
However, this species can recover well in good quality habitat with favourable temperatures and rainfall, thanks to repeated nesting and a high survival rate for the young. Indeed, they recovered in some areas of the UK, but numbers are once again on the decline in other regions of their natural range.
The range of the Dartford warbler is restricted to western and southern Europe. The total population in 2012 was estimated at 1.1–2.5 million breeding pairs. The largest numbers occur in Spain where there were believed to be 983,000–1,750,000 pairs. For reasons that probably include loss of suitable habitat, the Spanish population appears to be declining. The species is therefore classed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being Near threatened.
A period of climatic warming since 1963 has seen the UK population increase to "more than 2,500 pairs in 2006 (Wotton et al. 2009). Expansion into patches of structurally suitable habitat (up to an altitude of 400m), more northerly areas and away from the core of the range, from Dorset and Hampshire to Derbyshire and Suffolk, is likely to have been facilitated by milder winter weather (Wotton et al. 2009, Bradbury et al. 2011)... The Dartford warbler population in the UK is expected to continue to increase. However, future climate-based projections for the European range indicate that by 2080, more than 60% of the current European range may no longer be suitable (Huntley et al 2007). There is evidence that this is happening already, with severe declines in Spain and France (Green 2017). For this reason, the species is classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Global Red List. If the declines in southern Europe continue, the UK will become increasingly important for global conservation of this species".
Population:
UK breeding:
3,200 pairs
This is a landscape version of my square photo called 'Simple Abstract 75'.
This image is looking up at balconies of Wardian London, one of two similar towers in Canary Wharf, East London, using intentional camera movement. The architects are Glenn Howells.
I like to think this photo has the feel of a scientific abstract image taken by the great photographer Berenice Abbott (1898 to 1991).
UK architecture in the twenty first century. This is 'Canopy Hotel by Hilton' in Aldgate, London, which opened in November 2021. Architects: ACME.
See a square version of this photograph at flic.kr/p/2mYsQMj.
Looking up at a recently built structure, St James's Market, Central London. Architects: Make Architects. This development was RIBA London Award winner in 2018.
A magnificently curved building in Manchester, England.
This is Gateway House, completed in 1969. Architect: Richard Seifert.
The new Design Museum in Kensington opened in November 2016. The building was formerly the home of the Commonwealth Institute and it was opened in 1962. The architects were RMJM (Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall). This photo shows a section of the original roof structure.
This photo was taken in Toronto back in October 2017. I've posted square photos of this building on here, but not this one, until now.
The building is 'Exhibit Residences'. Architect: Rosario “Roy” Varacalli
Sometimes you think nothing is a coincidence. Moments after finishing this GIMPed abstract of "The Wave", I saw a photograph that had many similarities. So I copied the very suitable title of that photo.
The Wave, Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands.
Design: René van Zuuk (2004)
A view up into the canopy on a misty morning in Little Wittenham Wood, South Oxfordshire. I was taken by the snaking structure of the branches as the reach up into the sky.
A larger format photograph of an image in my recent, square, 'Forlorn Windows, Birmingham' series.
Also see flic.kr/p/2rKBMH2.
Photo taken in October 2025.
Abstract shot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA. It opened in 1883. Designed by John Augustus Roebling.
Photo taken in May 2024.
A close-up photo of the florets on a Cordyline fruiticosa plant photographed at the Des Moines Botanical Gardens.
Developed with Darktable 3.6.0.
The Monument Building in the City of London on a different day to my other recent photo called 'City Flickr'.
Architect: Ken Shuttleworth of Make
OBSERVE Collective
All images are © Copyrighted and All Rights Reserved
germanstreetphotography.com/michael-monty-may/
OBSERVE Collective
All images are © Copyrighted and All Rights Reserved
germanstreetphotography.com/michael-monty-may/
The building was originally a metal works shop, built in 1916. Today, it’s a wine storage facility in a trendy part of Portland.
A larger format photograph of an image in my recent, square, 'Forlorn Windows, Birmingham' series.
Also see flic.kr/p/2rKCGN7.
Photo taken in October 2025.