It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of wildlife photography. I love wildlife sanctuaries and zoos and basically any place I can take photos of animals. With no plans this Sunday, I didn't need much persuading to pick up my camera for a nice day out.

Well, it would have been a nice day only the Scottish weather was out in full force. It was sunny, but it was also raining and blustery and a little too cold to be outdoors for so long. But I still managed some very good shots!

We had a bit of respite by nipping indoors to see a flying show. Some of the owls are trained to be Owl Ambassadors for their species. In practice, what this means is that they fly from perch to perch for bits of chicken, and their only goal is that chicken. They are so focused on lunch and so practiced at flying that they swoop extremely low over your head. There was an awful lot of ducking/protecting my camera!

Alicanto the Magellan Horned Owl

Tehuthi the Pharaoh Eagle Owl

One surprise resident was this handsome kookaburra! Kookaburras are actually members of the Kingfisher family so decidedly not what you'd expect to find in an Owl Centre but since St Andrews Aquarium has meerkats, I've learned to never assume what I'll see at these kind of centres!

I will absolutely have to go back to the Scottish Owl Centre when it's a bit warmer!

Once again, another trip to Edinburgh Zoo. February makes for cold shooting but I'm pretty pleased with some of these shots. Always a treat to see the red pandas as well!

So May and June have been busy. Really busy. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have noticed a few trips back and forth to Edinburgh and that's because I've got myself a graduate job! I'm very excited to be staying in Scotland but understandably things have been a little hectic trying to get organised and "officially" move myself out from London. 

A trip to Birmingham to pick my brother up from his first year at uni almost felt like a holiday. Yes, I was buried up to my head in bags and clothes and textbooks sitting in the back seat but as a reward for managing to get the boot shut, we went to the Botanical Gardens.

Although it was cloudy and spat with rain a bit, it was still warm. We explored a good portion of the grounds, which reminded me of a scaled down Kew Gardens. There's actually a lot of horticulture packed into a comparatively small area and a nice (albeit expensive) tea room.

Plants aren't particularly a passion of mine (perhaps that will change when I have a garden of my own) but I really appreciated the herb and health garden and the historical gardens, built to reflect the styles from Roman, Medieval and Tudor times. 

The birdhouse was a pleasant surprise too! 

Truthfully though, this trip was an excuse to brush the dust off my macro lens and get some pretty photos of plants...

After some intermittent laptop trouble (don't break your wifi connector during an intense repair job), I can continue my American saga!

Deciding to go slightly off the beaten track, we drove down from Miami to Key Biscayne. If you're unfamiliar with Floridian geography, the keys or islands begin at the southern tip of the state and curve around until you reach Key West, which is extremely close to Cuba. There is, however, another set of keys slightly higher up and nearer to Miami. They get less tourism but are just as beautiful and have some gorgeous beaches.

We parked up at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park and immediately spotted something rustling in the trees surrounding the car park.

Raccoons! I know this is the equivalent of taking a picture of a pigeon back home because they're so common but raccoons!

These little guys were obviously roasting in the heat and were even panting like dogs but would get down from the trees and rummage around bushes for food when they felt up to it.

We also spotted bizarre-looking white ibises.

Through the trees we reached the coast - a surprisingly busy beach with pristine white sands. We've never been the type of family to sit on a beach and soak up the sun - mainly because we'd be burnt to a crisp - so we went exploring!

It should go without saying now that we were obviously struggling in the heat but it was worth it to see this fluorescent tape in the sand! Baby turtles!

We followed the path towards the lighthouse which took us under a row of tall palm trees.

We were unfortunately too late to climb the lighthouse as it was just closing but a park ranger let us look up the spiral staircase.

It was a shame we couldn't climb it but we still enjoyed sitting at the base in the shade and looking out over the Atlantic.

It was hard to believe that this is the same ocean as the dark and stormy waters back in the UK!

On our walk back this snake flung itself out of the shrubs and writhed around until it (presumably) died. We have no idea what happened or if anything attacked it but eventually stopped moving. I wasn't feeling brave enough to poke it and see if it was still alive!

We hid in the shade for a little while longer looking over the ocean. The area is a popular fishing spot and I kept seeing clear wire on the ground that I realised must be fishing line (number of times I have been fishing = 0). There were loads of designated boxes for loose lines as it's obviously really bad for marine life to ingest so my mission and good deed for the day was picking up every piece I saw! 

Our last stop was at the cafe in the park for a slushee-like drink (although they paled in comparison to the granitas of Italy!). We refilled our water bottles and waited for the car to cool down before driving back to Miami!  

Florida 2015
Universal Studios Orlando	Key Biscayne
Cocoa Beach and Village	Orchids and Key Largo
Kennedy Space Center	Dolphin Research Center
Miami Beach	Key West
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In between my posts about what I got up to in the Lake District, I thought I'd briefly fill you in on the time I went to Virginia Water in Surrey. Mum was looking for a place to go during the week to make sure my brother actually got some fresh air and I remembered Kiran mentioning Virginia Water as it was close by to Royal Holloway, the university she'll be attending come September.