Venus Pool - a wader!!!!

This wouldn't normally merit a mention but (you may need to be sitting down for this) there was a SMALL WADER present at 8.00am this morning!! Baird's Sandpiper, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper? Dream on Jim this was nowt but a winter plumage Dunlin - never mind - nice to see.






The rest of the morning (and early PM) turned into a Firecrest hunt - Yvonne needed this for a lifer.... A similar pattern as yesterday too, after a long wait, a long walk and then on return we had a minute or so of tantalising views as it worked it's way along an ivy covered fallen tree! This is one situation where a long lens is next to useless and whilst I struggled to lock focus in the poor light with the 'big one', Yvonne managed to get a record shot with the 100-400mm set up! And here it is......






Another YL Gull at Priorslee was the only bird worth a mention....

Wrekin - on fire!!

Met up with Andy today to have a hunt for the Wrekin Firecrest. He had seen it previously up the main track from the car park and as this was a sensible place to start, we gave it about 20 mins..... no sign!

Onwards and upwards then, we walked up to the cafe with a couple of Tit flocks, plenty of Thrushes and a flyover Crossbill to show for our efforts and just a single picture of a Goldcrest to justify lugging the kit up there....






Lady luck was certainly with us well over an hour later, at the very spot we started at. Within seconds we had the Firecrest in our sights!! No chance of a picture amongst the mass of foliage however! It showed twice briefly before disappearing for good...

One big Brunchfast later (thanks to Jan) we checked out the Gulls at Priorslee lake - plenty of Lessers, a few Herrings and pictured here, a single adult Yellow-legged Gull.






Venus Pool was still very quiet mid afternoon - a couple of pairs of Gadwall fresh in this morning plus the obliging male Kestrel!

Venus Pool - Kestrel Pair

A pretty unproductive day with a couple of hours spent at VP! Decent flock of c300Golden Plover over again, female Pintail, large numbers of Teal(66) and a Green Sandpiper but not a lot else! After departing - what should turn up for Andy late morning? A 1st winter Med Gull and despite dashing back at midday - there was no sign!

Never mind, I gave it another couple of hours to see if anything dropped in? Nothing did, apart from a male Kestrel in the nearby Trees....






That was it I thought, as it flew off?






Only to ponce on something unseen on the ground - a huge leatherjacket like grub!










The next development was another surprise - I saw the male duck as a female flew in - landing on an adjacent branch!






What a sight - the male calling softly to the female as they sat there for several minutes. A couple of representative shots - not much variety as they sat swaying on the breeze!








Plenty of common birds being very obliging this weekend but where's the next rarity coming from.....

Stubbers Green - Yellow Legs

Yes folks it's that time of year again - GULLS! After the Snipe encounter, I decided to give Stubbers Green a go - a couple of Caspian Gulls have been dropping in recently.

They weren't seen yesterday and they weren't going to be seen today! Never mind, two adult Yellow-legged Gulls were present, here's one individual.....








The usual selection of 'commoner' Gulls including 1st and 2nd Winter Common Gulls....








A real bruiser of an Adult Great black-backed Gull making the nearby Lesser look pretty puny in comparison!






Oh well, no Caspian today but I'll get one before long.....

Venus Pool - Snipe reflections

This was what came next, and to think it was only mintues after the gloom of the Golden Plover display! I'd been keeping my eye on three Common Snipe which had been feeding in the water not far away. As the sun came out and they started to preen - it looked like a good opportunity......

One of the classic bird poses is the Owl peeking around an object theme - not often you get a Snipe in this pose eh?






There's no trickery in the above - just a very unusual reflection! But on the subject of reflections......






Common Snipe viewed from almost every angle....






My favourite - I just love this image! The pose, reflection, ripples, light - worth all the hours of trying.....






Which is yours?

Venus Pool - Going for Gold

After all my recent travels, a localish weekend was called for and having seen a sizeable (c300 strong) flock of Golden Plover flying around the Venus Pool area during midweek - I wondered if they would drop in??

My early start ended up at an 8.00 arrival and even from the car park it was clear something spectacular was going down - the original flock had now trebled (at least) in size (easily c1,000), together with a few 100 lapwing and it was quite a spectacle!

Trouble was the gloomy start coupled with being into the light, made photography pretty almost a non-starter but I tried to capture the atmosphere......

The Plover seemed to favour the right hand muddy island and once that was 'full' the rest stayed airborne with an 'all change' every now and then!

Take off and landing at a deliberately slow shutter speed for arts sake.....















A quick morning wash and preen.....








Eventually the sun threatened to shine, so I changed the angle of view to the new Memorial Hide.....








Finally, reflections in the early morning sun...








What's next?

Cley - Pectoral Sandpiper

A gloomy start to Saturday at Cley and I wouldn't really call the distant Green-winged Teal on the North scrape a highlight but they all count!

A Pectoral Sandpiper at least had the courtesy to stay close to the hide on Simmonds
scrape.










Often keeping company with a Common Snipe.....








I didn't realise it at the time but these were to be the last bird images from the weekend! The heavens opened and after being lured out for the Owls, got a bit of a soaking during the evening - never mind - a dramatic landscape at Salthouse!






Sunday at least produced a couple of year ticks when a mobile skulking Yellow-browed Warbler (how do you get a shot of one of these?) decided to show at Holme. This bird brought the 250 up for the yearlist too!! I'm indebted to the local who put me on it with a Tit flock - by the standing caravan! Three Common Cranes later at Welney - as far away as they could manage!