Spotted Crake records

cracking bird and the first had seen for about 12 years! amazing what you don't see for long spells when you don't twitch regularly -- great scope views and active most of the afternoon but heat haze and pollutants in the air plus distance, 2x converter etc made fro rubbish images -- looks like a fresh juvenile --

Migrant and Southern Hawkers

juvenile Dunlin

really miss having sites locally where you can get close to waders for photography and observations -- most sites are now overgrown, covered in reed or sea aster or you can only sit in a hide 100m away -- distinct contrast with nearctic waders, tame, approachable and abundant --

elegant Spoons

not easy to look good when you have a big bill and are moulting and generally scruffy; basically just big white blobs 

beginners Quail

when they can fly at such a small size it is confusing

juvenile Marsh Harriers

always great to see a brood fledge

Black Stork juv

Spurn August 4th -- often standing where you are told means you are a long way off and other people get closer shots but hey ho that's the problem with doing the right thing -- 500 with 2x on 7D2 -- noise is still a problem with this camera even at 800 ISO -- its habit of putting its bill in its neck feathers was a bit odd looking; people with long memories may remember an ongoing debate in British Birds about Black Storks with white tails, which was of course people seeing displaying birds with white undertail coverts overlapping the upper tail -- not sure why this one had these white feathers raised up over its back when it was walking in the juncus?

female Marsh Harrier moult

amazing how quickly the fledged Marsh Harrier juvs disperse and the adults go into moult and become harder to see -- interesting wing moult on this female -- the upper female with the juv is what I call a rufous morph -- still not seen this really described but distinctly rusty plumage with no real cream crown or throat and plumage maintained through adult stages with no difference year on year -- this old female arrived back on the local patch in late April with a pair of young birds already on her territory -- an adult male then returned and the eventual outcome was the young male was ousted and paired to both this female and the younger female -- the latter reared three young and this female two young, last year she only fledged one as a beta female again -- 

Peacock

what makes a butterfly shot a bit different in an age when everyone seems to go for frame filling big macros?