Today, is defining and momentous in history with the election of a new US President. After watching all the news and then being told repeatedly by the useless weather forcasters that we were in for a cloudy overcast and generally miserable day I was not at all surprised to see by 10 0’clock, cloudless blue skies and bright sun!!!!! Why do they even bother because they are so often miles off the mark.
I grabbed my kit and leapt in to the car and in a few minutes I was on the marsh and photographing Little Egrets and Black-tailed Godwits. The Godwit was one of the two or three that have been on the marsh for at least 6 weeks but today just one had strayed to within 10 feet of the muddy path and didn’t much care if I was there or not. I snapped away as you do waiting for that really good pose and in the hope of something a bit special. He/she ….who knows ……… ? Just totally ignored me and even hopped past me to the little area of water to my left wher I took a couple of nice shots with really good reflections.

it might be interesting to compare these images with those taken earlier in the Autumn of the same bird and see how it’s plumage colouration has changed.

After a little while it took off ….. I had just adjusted the camera to portrait mode and had I not bothered I would have got probably my best ever photo but I didn’t quite catch it in-frame and was about 3 inches off. A real shame because it has spoiled a really great shot otherwise.

This one was about the best today, a really good portrait of a really nice bird, one I have got to know over the last 5 weeks or so and I wonder if the bird recognises me and sees me as no threat because that is the impression I get.

So now the weather is still bright and I could see through the Binos my “pet” Stonechat hen on her favourite perch almost waiting for me. Today she didn’t disappoint and almost straight away caught a great big bee and then juggled with it back on her perch before she eventually got it down. I wonder how she deals with the sting?