Crufts 2016 (Part 2)

Some more pictures from our visit to Crufts during the Gun Dog day.  This set concentrates on the beautiful animals being shown (and, occasionally, their owners too).

First up are various flavours of spaniel.

Next come the retrievers - both golden and labrador.  Being a proud owner of a "dumb blonde", I spent quite a lot of time in this section of the show.

Izzi proving that she has "dog whispering" skills.

I'm not sure that my labrador would pass the "Gundog Working Test".

The final picture is of an interloper: a border terrier (friendly, apparently) which was on one of the commercial stands.

Crufts 2016 (Part 1)

On Friday 11th March I made my annual pilgrimage to Crufts, this time accompanied by both daughters.  A great day out and a family reunion too, and the fact it was the Gun Dogs on show was simply the icing on the cake.  This is the first time I've visited Crufts mid-week, and it was far quieter than at the weekend.  Much more pleasant, in fact, and we even managed to get into the Arena for a while (of which more in a future post).

The first couple of pictures are actually life-sized (and very life-like) stuffed toys.

Then came the Pets as Therapy stand, with an assortment of different pooches all trained to work in hospitals, hospices, old people's homes etc.

We didn't have the space (or, to be honest, the inclination) to take advantage of this particular bargain...

As always at Crufts, everyone is incredibly friendly and perfectly willing to be photographed - especially with their dogs, on which they dote.  The following pictures are in no particular order, but many are from the Discover Dogs section of the show.  Let's face it, a pug (for example) wouldn't make an especially efficient or useful gun dog!

Wasn't it nice of the next two dogs to have their tongue and ribbon respectively matching the colour of the carpet?

We then found the "pampered pooches" section of the show, where various different animals were being groomed - and clearly loving every minute of it.

The final two for today's post go from the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of size.

RAF Barnham 2 (Homo photographicus)

My favourite natural history subject is, without a doubt, Homo photographicus - or, to be more exact the shy and elusive sub-species Homo photographicus (Cantabrigiensis).  There were several good specimens on the trip to RAF Barnham, some in full winter plumage, and it was a joy to take pictures of them in their natural habitat...

Pat obviously wanted something red in her picture.

Ok, some real natural history here.  Ann found a large group of harlequin ladybirds in one of the "hutches".

The final three pictures were taken from the top of one of the lookout towers.  The less adventurous members of the group stayed at ground level, whereas the "alpha males" went right to the top.  Getting down was rather more tricky, as Paul found out.