I had a huge dilemma - Channel Wagtail is flitting around to the west side of the road and now overhead - the Spoonbill!! And it's landing on the flood right by the road on the east side!! Given that I hadn't seen it feeding close up, I opted for the Spoonbill (for the time being).....
Zooming in a little closer....
And of course, it was feeding......
Catching small Sticklebacks!
Seen from another angle, some of the Sticklebacks were not so small!
Lining it up......
Then down the hatch :-)
A couple of portraits to finish with....
And then, time for some Channel Wagtail action .....
It took me two sessions to get onto this Channel Wagtail, a little beauty which Shropshire seems to have a good record of these tagging along with the Yellows..... This is the third County one I've had in the viewfinder! Problem was it was nearly always distant! And I took a lots of pointless shots at this distance.... for the record :-)
But on occasions, it scampered closer!
And eventually onto the grass where there was a hope of it leaving the record shot zone?
One of three Yellow Wags keeping it company....
Closer still....
But never really quite achieving close enough!
Not that I'm grumbling with these last few (although it took an inordinate amount of time to get these!!)
And a final pose on the mud before it flew.....
Most of the chit chat and banter was about the status of this gorgeous little bird. It's a hybrid between Motacilla flava (continental 'Blue-headed') and Motacilla flavissima (our 'Yellow') wagtails. You can't tick it of course but you can point your bins, scope or camera at it and enjoy this lovely freak of nature.....
It took me two sessions to get onto this Channel Wagtail, a little beauty which Shropshire seems to have a good record of these tagging along with the Yellows..... This is the third County one I've had in the viewfinder! Problem was it was nearly always distant! And I took a lots of pointless shots at this distance.... for the record :-)
But on occasions, it scampered closer!
And eventually onto the grass where there was a hope of it leaving the record shot zone?
One of three Yellow Wags keeping it company....
Closer still....
But never really quite achieving close enough!
Not that I'm grumbling with these last few (although it took an inordinate amount of time to get these!!)
And a final pose on the mud before it flew.....
Most of the chit chat and banter was about the status of this gorgeous little bird. It's a hybrid between Motacilla flava (continental 'Blue-headed') and Motacilla flavissima (our 'Yellow') wagtails. You can't tick it of course but you can point your bins, scope or camera at it and enjoy this lovely freak of nature.....
