Monday 8th September. 

I decided to pay a visit to Wicken Fen, approaching from Burwell. First stops at the hides - no water and no birds. So I carried on towards Mere Hide but half way there, I met a couple walking in the opposite direction who infomed me that there was no water there either so I turned round to go back to the car.

On the way back, there were a couple of Roe Deer close enough for a photo, although against the sun.

A disappointing afternoon.

Thursday 11th September.

A trip to Grafham Water. Firstly the dam but there were serveral fisherman on it so no birds to see so I moved on to Mander car park and the hide. Certainly there were birds but the water level was so low that they were too distant for any decent shots. On the way back to the harbour a Cormorant flew by.

and several Common Terns were flying around, first an adult

and a couple of juveniles.

Regretfully, the Black Tern that was present was too far away.

So, once again, a poor day making it a very poor week.

Well, that is birding for you.

Last Thursday, a friend and I went to Lemsford Springs as he had visited a few days before and was happy enough with his photos to want to revisit. Weather was mainly cloudy with showers forecast, some heavy.

The attractions are the Green Sandpipers and Snipe that are mainly winter visitors but it rapidly became clear that photograpahy would be challenging, what with the weather, coupled with the birds maintaining a distance.

Firstly, a Kingfisher made a brief visit

and eventually, one Snipe started to feed with it's feeding circle bringing it close enough for a shot.

That encouraged one Green Sandpiper to move closer. although still distant.

But the star of the show, although still distant was a Stoat. Adding a 1.4 converter to the 200-800 lens helped but with the poorish light, an aperture of f13 gave high ISO readings but, having only photographed a Stoat once before, and many moons ago, it was worth a punt.

In the afternoon, upon recommendation, we visited the Watercress Wildlife Association reserve at St.Albans. Ring-necked Parakeets were resident which my friend had never photographed before. Well, he failed this time too. In fact neither of us took a single photo as there was nothing showing.

An early return home was the answer!!!!

Having an unexpected free day last Monday - 1st September - I decided to see what was happening on the west Norfolk coast. It has been a while as it is not the area to see wildlife in school holidays  - too many people around - but worth a try on the day before the local schools return.

I decided to try RSPB Titchwell first but that was a total waste of time. With other sites complaining about the lack of water, there was an excess here - lapping up to the front of Island Mere Hide and surrounded by uncut reeds. Nothing to photograph there, or, in fact, anywhere else on the reserve. Visiting Titchwell RSPB has become a total waste of time for photography.

Photographers must provide a reasonable proportion of the RSPB's income - It's about time that they realised that and provided the facilities that were once available. Rant over!!!!

So I moved on - Lady Anne Drive Holkham was like a motorhome exhibition so I did not stop. Next call was Burnham Overy Staithe - sailboards, small boats and packed with holiday makers so also not worth stopping. This has all the hallmarks of a bad day!!!

So the next call, Brancaster Staithe, just after high tide and not at all busy with people and cars, but few birds either. So I resigned to a bad day and sat eating my lunch in the car before going home. And then I noticed a Turnstone - just about - as it was well camouflaged.

and then others arrived and posed nicely in the sunlight.

A few smaller waders turned up - Dunlin

and a couple of Ringed Plovers.

A Little Egret has been fishing but rather too distant until it decided to fly - straight at the camera.

and several Redshanks also turned up, one catching a small crab.

Then a fight broke out between two of them that carried on for several minutes.

with the loser flying off.

That was an event - a couple of hundred photos taken posing a later problem of which to keep.

So, not for the first time, Brancaster Staithe harbour turns up trumps.

Going home, I called in at Thornham harbour with the usual Curlew feeding before giving me a flypast opportunity.

So what started out as a bad day ended up a good day.

 

Being totally fed up last Friday, (22nd), I wanted to relieve the boredom by getting out. The Friday before the last bank holiday weekend of the year is always a problem - go to the coast and it is too busy, the same story for most places so in the end, I decided to travel north to Welney WWT - not too far and if very busy, an easy drive home.

Cambridgeshire is plagued by road closures at present and the drive to Welney was no excception so I had to take the long way there, through the fen villages and there was my first subject in a harvested field near Coveney - a mother and juvenile Roe Deer.

Welney was not too busy so I stayed longer that I had expected with a few rather distant Ruff from the observatory

but the action started from the south hide of the observatory with a few Yellow Wagtails on the observatory roof

and then some Juvenile Barn Swallows patiently waiting to be fed.

Finally, the opportunity came to catch the adult feeding one juvenile.

I was happy with that so decided to go home. On the way, I always check the feeders from the cafeteria for Tree Sparrows but, for the second time, there were none there, just House Sparrows - disappointing.

August has proved to be a quiet month for my photography, mainly due to holidays, but last week, a friend had arranged to visit Tom Robinson's hides near Bourne in Lincolnshire so I decided to join him. Getting there for 7.00am was a shock to the system, especially finding that the bridge at Stamford was closed and the diversion took my nearly 30 miles out of my way. Still, I arrived with my friend and another couple of photgraphers already there as well.

Only one Kingfisher showed, a rather scruffy male. Apparently, it was keeping the female and this years fledgelings away. Still, it made several visits and the sun was shining - what could go wrong!!!

Well, a couple of days before, I had upgraded the firmware on my Canon R5 MK2, like and idiot, did not check it, and it had reverted the whole software to factory settings - no back button focussing, eye focussing etc. So I struggled with it, missing several chances of diving and emerging from the water but still managed some shots in focus.

Mid afternoon, we moved on to the hide for Brown Hares, in nearby Rutland and just at the end of the runway for RAF Cottesmore (now unused). Good hides, but the only problem was - no Hares!!! Evenyually, one appeared  and came close enough for a distance shot.

Very frustrating as, in a distant field, we counted 11 Hares feeding and when we left the hide to leave, near dusk, several more suddenly ran from the within the grass etc. in front of the hide.

Such is wildlife photography!!!