Friday 30 September 2011

Norfolk Day 4

Day 4 was spent almost entirely at Titchwell with hopes of Bearded Tit...... sadly dashed again! Eventually I got to the beach and with the tide just starting to drop bumped into Deano Eades!! A long overwaited encounter and we had a pretty good day with a good cast of waders on display and generally put the bird photography world to rights :-)

A reflex few images were grabbed as an Arctic Skua came out of nowhere - blasting past within 50m of the beach!







The mussel beds eventually got exposed and one of the smartest (and equally elusive) birds on show was this Summer plumaged Grey Plover.....







Here they come!




Plenty of Knot probing in the sand










Brent Geese - 1..... 2..... 3.......







Turnstone, as ever obliging....





Redshank gliding in and sticking!













Bar-tailed Godwits - stepping out.....











Interesting comparison shot with Blackwit!



Tonught's sunset from an 'owl-less' Salthouse

Thursday 29 September 2011

Norfolk day 3

Another relatively uninspiring day but the weather was gorgeous - clear blue skies and unseasonally HOT.... And I evn got a brief opportunity to catch a male Bearded Tit at Cley! Where the waders were not so plentiful but including Green Sandpiper..... Plus plenty of Ruff as usual! This male came fairly close..... Most of the action was in the sky with a family of Marsh Harriers interacting. Frustratingly distant but nevertheless, some great action..... Some creatures have no shame, I had to step over this copuluating pair of Common Darters!
  Then, taking to the reeds.....
  I moved onto Titchwell inh the afternoon. Nothing much had changed there! When all else fails, there's always a few Turnstones about! This one had a bit of an identity crisis or maybe longing for a Godwitesque bill? I was really hoping to get some shots of the wader roost but the Knot etc were really flightly and often disturbed by walkers/dogs...... Who cares, a pretty and idyllic end to the day as the sun dropped below the dunes...

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Norfolk day 2

Cley didn't turn up much today and I wasted a lot of time getting frustrated by pinging Beardies which refused to show! In fact, I didn't take a picture of note. Titchwell was much the same and at least the 7D didn't sieze up from lack of use when I got to the beach....

The low tide was turning with a few Knot close by......





And in flight.....





Sanderling too. They were very tricky to expose correctly in the low directional light!





Sprinting in the shallow water.....



A final pose as the Sun prepared to disappear....



The long walk back to the car as the sun set on another North Norfolk day :-)