Last Tuesday, and despite my worn out knee complaining, I decided to get some fresh air and go to Grafham Water. Weather cloudy during the morning - anything of interest on the dam was pretty non-existent - not a good start but in the birding world, persistence is the by-word these days. Even a couple of Redshank were too flighty to get close enough for a shot.

So over to the harbour - a few gulls and loads of Coot and that was it so over to the hide to rest my knee and lunch. Anything of interest was rather distant but a pair of Goldeneye put on a mating display

with the male coming within reasonable range eventually.

Just after lunch, the sun remembered to obey the BBC weather forecast and made an appearance but still no birds of interest. So I decided to revisit the dam where things had improved. A Teal showed it's colours in the afternoon light,

a Meadow Pipit was feeding along the tideline

and a Pied Wagtail was catching flies on the dam wall.

The very flighty Redshank seemed to have calmed down allowing a close approach.

but, with nothing of real interest, I made my way home, calling in at Fen Drayton Lakes on the way.

A Kestrel was keeping a watch on the trackside in the late afternoon sun searching for supper

and then, for me, the shot of the day with a male Stonechat.

So nothing a real importance but that is the way of things at present. Trying to make the best of what is on offer.

 

 

 

Places to visit are rather restricted when you are unable to walk any distance but, with a friend, we decided to go to the north Norfolk coast. A decent day's photography can be had from the car so we started out at Sculthorpe Moor to see if we could get better photos of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers using pre-capture on the Canon R5 mk2. My friend has the same camera.

We had a brief visit from the Woodpecker but I did not get anything better that the previous visit so nothing to show in this blog. I made a mistake that I will endeavour not to repeat. I left pre-capture on and ended up with loads of photos that I did not want. The only photo worth keeping was of a solitary Wren as it fed around the hide.

We then moved on to the harbour at Brancaster Staithe. Weather great - blue skies for a change and low but rising tide. A Little Egret was fishing

as was a Curlew that flew over to our side of the water.

The Common Gull that was around the last time I visited was still there, bathing and flying.

Next, we decided to pay Titchwell RSPB a visit but only succeeded in using the loos and then moved on as we were informed that the water level in front of Island Hide was still very high so no birds to photograph. Only during one visit recently has there been any mud in front of this hide and there were plenty of birds. Can they get the water levels correct here because I am not the only one that has stopped visiting because of this.

So we moved on to Thornham harbour with the rising tide. The usual Curlews were around.

Curlews are a threatened species but there are always a few here. Another Common Gull posed nicely.

and a Grey Plover played ball for a change.

Finally, a Black-tailed Godwit appeared on the far side of the harbour race, ignoring us as it went about feeding.

And then the light dropped so time to head for home. Another day of trying to improve my catalogue with nothing new, or even scarce to whet the appetite.

Definitley not an auspicious day as far as photography was concerned.  A friend and I met up for the first time for a while and decided to begin the day at Dernford Reservoir, just south of Cambridge. It has been a couple of months or so at least since I last visited - what a disappointment!!!! Willows and scrub has been allowed (or possibly encouraged), to grow up by the water line so it was very difficult to see anything close enough for a photo. We did not stay long.

I am not able to walk any distance at present. I have a replacement knee operation booked for the new year so I am rather restricted and that reduced the options as to where to go then. So we decided to go to Welney WWT - should be some birds around and not too far to walk.

With a North-West wind , the birds were landing away from the observatory hides but gave the opportunity to take flight shots with the new gear. Pochard

Mallard

and female Wigeon.

Ok, so common species but you take what you can get.

Something different, a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull flew past

and the usual Whooper Swans put on a flying display..

We were both totally caught by surprise when a male Hen Harrier flew past, just giving the opportunity for a rear end shot - not my best but notable for me as it has been several years since my last photo of the species.

After that, we moved to the cafe for a coffee and cake, ending up on the balcony overlooking Ladyfen with nothing of note. Even the Sparrows on the feeders were in short supply until a Chinese Water Deer appeared, slowly making it's way towards us. As it was distant, I added the 1.4 Teleconverter to the 200-800 lens but now wish I hadn't as I am not impressed with the resulting quality.

Anyway, it was something different to end a disappointing day.

 

My recent trip to visit family in Munich was most enjoyable, made even better by a trip to the Allianz Stadium to see Bayern Munich play Benfica in the European football league. Except that in the long walk to the stadium, my knee gave out and I was only able to limp along very slowly. I have an appointment for a full knee replacement in early January so I will be out of action for a few weeks.

It has taken me few days to recover sufficiently to venture out, which I did to Welney WWT last Wednesday -13th November. I just needed a break and it was not too far to walk to the observatory. Weather sunny and calm - ideal conditions for a change and to give the new gear - Canon R5 mk2 and the Canon 200-800 lens - a full workout.

There was only common species there but, sometimes, it is really enjoyable to try to take better shots for the library. It all worked brilliantly with 29 new images in the Recent Additions section. Here are some of the ones that I was particularly pleased with.

Wigeon

Whooper Swan

Pochard

Great White Egret

Tufted Duck

Among the Pochard, there was a strange looking bird. After investigating, it was a hybrid of Common Pochard and Ferruginous duck - most unusual but still worth a few shots.

So a very good day for me overall - and the gear worked brilliantly. Auto-focus very fast to lock on and the extra noise in the images was no problem at all to overcome in processing.

 

Ndutu is an area that covers the south-eastern part of the Serengeti National Park and where the herds of Wildebeest and Zebras spend  from October to April to produce young and feed on the grassy plains before continuing on the great migration up into south Kenya. We were there to catch the end of the movement.

Our stay was at the Ndutu Safari Lodge, very remote but wonderfully situated. Once again, we were advised not to walk after dusk between our rooms and the hotel facilities without an armed guard due to the prevalence of predators - pretty obvious in the morning as Wildebeest, Zebras and antelopes were just a hundred metres or so away with no fence.

The hotel itself was rather more basic than previous ones but still adequate - wi-fi only available in the main hotel - but we assembled at the usual 06.00 for breakfast, accompanied by a pair of Large-spotted Genets in the roof timbers over us, waiting for scraps that the waiters put out for them. A tricky photographic subject as there was little light to work with.

The weather was cloudy and rainy and not expected to improve during the day but the first real subject was a Spotted-Thick-Knee close by the track that posed nicely.

After a session with that we quickly found a family of Giraffe, at first rather wary but soon ignoring us.

The grey leaden skies did not help with a couple of raptors  we found later on both in hunting mode . First a Red-necked Falcon

and a Shikra.

Still far from ideal photographic conditions but we found a pair of Verreaux's Eagle Owls roosting in a tree.

Another opportunity that really tested the my cameras ability to shoot in low light.

Later, we came  across a few juvenile Wire-tailed Swallows, vainly waiting to be fed by the absent parents.

and then another colony of Little Bee-eaters that posed nicely with an attractive background for a change.

The light began to improve a little when we found a Hooded Vulture on the ground that stayed long enough for a few images.

An unusual find was a  Tawny Eagle on the ground looking to catch it's next meal

before a  jealous neighbour decided to fly in to intrude on the opportunity.

Then the rain set in with a vengeance in the early afternoon. However a male Impala was undisturbed by the rain or us.

But the rain became torrential so we headed back to the hotel, on the way coming across a herd of Wildbeest that had started migration, but held up by the rain just a couple of hundred metres from the hotel, successfully preventing us from reaching it for an hour or so.

So that was the end of our first day in Ndutu - hopefully it will improve but the heavy rain was not a good sign for the next day.