Sunday 26 January 2014

Cheddar Reservoir - Red-crested Pochard

As promised, the Red-crested Pochard pair which were keeping their distance and wary, whern they weren't asleep....


The female now wide awake!


Plus the male showing very nicely despite the side lighting!






Never far apart....








And with the drake up for a bit of attention?


Showing off with some display antics....






Thanks for the great day Gemma! Just the drive back to Swansea now (and Nando's) followed by the trip back to Shropshire......

Cheddar Reservoir - Long-tailed Duck

A 48 hour period of travel was spent with Gemma in Swansea followed by a swimming event in Somerset! After this -  at least an hour of 'culture' taking in Wells Cathedral.....

Did you know this clock is considered to be the second oldest clock mechanism in Britain and probably the world to survive in it's original condition and still in use!

The original works were made about 1390 and the clock face is the oldest surviving original of its kind anywhere.When the clock strikes every quarter, jousting knights rush round above the clock and the Quarter Jack bangs the quarter hours with his heels.


I bet you are all transfixed, contemplating this amazing timepiece but...... daylight was burning......

I managed to get the nod that a (few minutes) look at Cheddar reservoir would be acceptable?

That is until a brief scan revealed both Long-tailed Duck and a pair of Pochard within 40m of the path drifting amongst a large flock of Pochard!

Here's the Long-tailed Duck.....

Let sleeping Ducks lie?


No! Waking up and cruising nearer.....




A stretch and wingflap!




Before a finale - just about managing to pose well despite side lighting :-(


Such a smart duck - 1st Winter drake...


Just needs to grow that tail a bit more!




Talk about working under pressure, the few minutes stretched to at least half an hour (thanks Gemma!) 

Red-crested Pochard coming next......

Thursday 23 January 2014

Venus Pool - Fieldfare

If my lucky encounter with the female Velvet Scoter was the highlight, then the downside was failing to connect (after three hours + of watching an listening) with a rather interesting Chiffchaff recently photographed at Venus Pool!

Nevertheless, if a Fieldfare is going to parade up and down the meadow, catching worms, it's difficult to ignore....

Where there's moles, there's worms! He knows :-)




I managed to get one of the worms disappearing!


It came closest when the sun went in!




But close enough for a bit of detail!


Wednesday 22 January 2014

Priorslee Lake - Velvet Scoter flight!!

With decent light, I thought I'd chance the Velvet Scoter again? I was hoping for a wingflap but got more than I bargained for when she took off for a fly around with some Tufties....

Kriss Webb alerted me, I had to act quickly - here's three or four seconds of action!












I certainly got my wingflap!! So this is how she gets around! :-)

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Tittesworth Res - Lesser Scaup

I was still picking off scarcities within a reasonable distance and todays 'pick' was the Lesser Scaup at Tittesworth Reservoir!

Here's a couple for now....



A different pose!


More to come......

Sunday 19 January 2014

Venus Pool - Whooper Swans

A break from the Scoter and travel today, the only photographic action came from a mid afternoon call at Venus Pool. This doesn't happen every day - the Swans were in residence, including eight Whooper Swans (here's five of them) with four Bewicks in the disrtance .....


The five just chilling out....


A feeble attenpt to form a heart shape!


The other three.....


Picking out twosomes.






They were never far away!


I picked this one out to finish with


Bewicks to sort next.....

Venus Pool - Bewick's Swans

The family group of four Bewick's Swans stayed quite far off sadly. Here's some representative images....




A wingflap always helps!