Green-winged Teal

the light was particularly poor when I managed these record shots; they were with the 300 2.8 plus both converters and taken in a force 6 westerly which was nearly blowing me off my feet so I was actually amazed at how decent they were, decent being a relative term;

Stock Doves

even though I come across these local birds every time I visit this site they are never that easy to photograph in flight

Coot flight

Black-bellied Dipper

in spite of the fact that this bird has been residing just about 20 miles from my house + the usual rip off Humber Bridge £5:40 for a few weeks I had not been to have a look for it until today; deciding to spend the day catching up with some work on the puter I was tempted out by ND to have look for the black-belly; at first we must have walked past it but then it was back in its usual spot and as the over-egged term says was showing well albeit in dull and cloudy weather;

more dips

the light was decidedly lacking in brightness but at least it didn't burn out the white on the bird's front

new friends

mini-Shets

Snipe

a few more shots with the 2x and 1.4 converter combo in low light this time

Teal v SV

just for a change the Teal were close to the hide when the fog cleared but not for long---I really want to get some shots of displaying males at close quarters

L Grebe Pochard

after the frost the sun and the new 2 converter combo on the grebe

frost and fog

while my garden was bathed in sunshine 300m down the road the pits were cloaked in fog and temps of -7C; the sun finally emerged at 12:00hrs

Bittern a little closer

but not a lot closer; 300 2.8 with 2 converters, heat haze well shimmer of sun in 2C temps then the hide filled with VERY noisy bird spotters--no more shots

end of a fine day

I spent the whole day around the local patch most of it, 6 hours, in one hide but it was a good day for birds and mammals and sun but it was truly cold for much of the time; the day ended with a superb sky which increased in intensity about 30 minutes after sunset; here is a pair of Teal in the developing mist over the ponds, a Grey Heron passing the orange sky and a couple of shots of the sunset

Fox

a pair of Foxes were sunbathing most of the morning in front of the hide but about 120m away; they occasionally did a bit of vole hunting caming a little closer but were stil a bit far off though the frost and the light made up for the lack of close images

Curlew bird

this one landed for a few minutes in front of the hide which is most odd--apart from a few snipe the only waders I have seen there were a flock of 48 summer plumage Icelandic Black-tails and 13 Ruff on one memorable April morning

for the photographers these were taken with a 1DIIN, 300 2.8 and stacked 1.4 and 2x converters

Marsh Harrier

some nice encounters with two harriers today--this is the 3cy? male which seems to be a semi-resident for now until an adult male returns to kick him out and a juvenile now 2cy