All of the local sites where Pintail occur have failed to provide me with any decent images and in spite of a winter with over 140 birds at Alkborough my images remained poor at best so yesterday it was nice to finally come across a trio of birds that accepted my presence and to get some better images. Had to shoot over a strip of reeds so no chance of getting low but certainly an improvement on my old shots. One of our best ducks.
One of 12 seen this week in a dedicated Snipe/Jack search effort - the only one seen on the deck although two were within 10cm of my boot!
My first UK Dipper for a lot of years, just don't put in any effort to see them! only took my 70-200 f4 lens with me so habitat shots - also some scenery from a day around Grassmere when the dodgy knee managed to get to the top of the rather small Helm Cragg -
an advanced juvenile / first-winter Grey Phalarope at Alkborough earlier in the week; I literally had 30 minutes before we set off for the Lakes and the light was non-existent but went for 2000 ISO that produced 1/250th second -- certainly have better Grey Phal images but a small highlight in a very very dull autumn
distant for the camera -- herewith also my amazing artwork on the juvenile at Saltholme in August 1982 -
