Flight of the Bittern

Bitterns are secretive, solitary marsh birds known for their stealthy hunting, cryptic camouflage and distinctive booming calls. Bittern sightings at Paxton Pits are not common so I was delighted when this one decided to take off and fly close to the water looking like a Sea Eagle! Not great quality to the photos but happy with the sequence as it flew along the lake edge. The final entry shows the entire flight. 

Flying Displays - Wasps and Red Arrows

I took my telephoto lens up Toft Drift to watch and photograph the Red Arrow display over at Duxford Airshow. While waiting I noticed a Wasp nest in the ploughed field by the path and set about recording their flight and nest building skills - quite large chunks of mud and stones were being flown in and the walls build. At the end of the show the Red arrows returned to their base low right over our heads!! The Wasps were definitely quieter!

Swallows Fledging

Yesterday morning our telephone wire to the house was suddenly occupied by a dozen or so Swallows, many of them young fledglings calling to be fed. I found the second image in my archives; it  was taken on August 5th 2008 and I thought about all the generations that would have visited Toft since Swallows used to nest in our garage (now our bedroom!!). They nested in the garage every year from when we moved 'up the road' in 2000 till the garage was converted in 2013. Since then, there have always been Swallows in the small holding up Mill Lane. After about an hour, they all flew off going south so I guess are starting the long migration.

In Flight at RSPB Sandy

Bright sunny day - ideal for attempting to capture insects in flight and RSPB Sandy had a plethora of wonderful subjects to practise on including  the aggressive-looking Bee-wolf Wasps, the 'cuddly, Green-eyed bees, athletic Hummingbird Hawkmoths, feeding Carder bees and the very long legged Sand Wasp

RSPB Bempton Exploratory Visit

My last visit to Bempton was 13 years ago in 2013 so there are quite a lot of changes in terms of Visitor centre, car parking and the provision of railed viewing areas. It was very busy yesterday but it did not seem crowded and I chatted to bird watchers from many different countries as we tried to spot the Puffins!!. Here just a set of introductory shots to help me plan photography for the subsequent visits though, from experience, the joy of capturing such graceful Gannets and Kittiwakes in flight will still override any other plans.