Rutland Water Visit

Chilly day yesterday for an RPSNature visit to Rutland Water where Hobbies were definitely the stars of the day with several hawking in the sky from lunchtime onwards and one sitting on a post for a long wile before exiting front giving a disappointing shot for all the wait!! Lots of singing small birds including Reed Bunting and Sedge Warbler.

Barnwell Park Birds

Some of the birds that we photographed on Sunday at Barnwell Park. The Goldcrest was very confiding and occasionally hopped into a sunny patch for a portrait or two. The Mandarin male and female were obviously paired up and spent some time up a tree presumably nest site hunting. Heron nest and Egret at a distance and good to photograph a Carrion crow. 

Marsh Harriers and Cuckoo at Lackford

Ellie chose to visit Lackford with me today on her day off, hoping to see a Kingfisher - no luck with that wish but we did have great views of Marsh Harriers, Heron, Egret, Lapwing in the Irises etc and, best of all, a really good view of a male Cuckoo, who conveniently then landed in a tree and proceeded to call just to confirm the ID. A lot of Common Blue Damselflies and a quite late Orange-tailed Mining bee

Morning Light at Hunstanton

In addition to the possibility of a stunning sunset, Hunstanton can also provide beautiful lighting for morning bird photography as the sun climbs above the cliff accentuating the intricate plumage of our winter waders, gulls and egrets. Sanderlings are always a challenge but worth the chase!! 

Flight Shots at Hunstanton

 I spent some time on Saturday at Hunstanton trying to get flight shots of the various birds there especially the Fulmars. The light level was low with the cloudy conditions so high ISO and difficult to get high enough shutterspeeds  but it did allow detail in the whites and certainl;y gave the camera a task to pick up the birds against backgrounds