I couldn't believe how bad the weather was when I pocked my head out of the bathroom window this morning at 7.50.  We were in the middle of a near  gale!!!!  The bushes and trees around the garden were being buffeted by strong wind and rain and I was sure that today was going to be a day for something other than recording the wildlife.  This was extremely disappointing to say the least because after dark, late  yesterday, my new camera had arrived and I was as keen as a small child on Christmas morning to play with my new toy. As if by magic, by 9 it had calmed down and I caught sight of my first Blackcap of the day at around that time, a female eating from the apple slice.  I quickly set up a camera in the porch of the kitchen door and focused it on the spot and retreated to the kitchen.  The male was first to arrive and I took a few shots of him with the remote shutter release.  Unfortunately they were out of focus!!!!!  There was nothing else for it, I had to get out there in my chair hide.  I put the new camera on the tripod and sat in the hide, in the light rain, to wait it out.  It wasn't very long before the male returned and I took lots and lots of pictures of him as he crept in to feed off the apple.  Thenew  camera proved immediately that it is far superior to it's predecessor, the Pentax K7. It seams that Pentax have really addressed the problems of noise at high ISO setting meaning that I was able to take lots of nice pictures in the gloom which with my previous cameras would not have been possible.

Is it my imagination, but are these pictures significantly better than I have been getting previously, remember, they are taken without light, in the depths of a bush on a dull November rainy day. I am thrilled to be honest. 

By the early afternoon, the storm had passed through and now we had bright sunshine so I got myself ready and went to check out my new "Snipe" hide. I was chuffed as I got near it, to discover it had survived the gale but unfortunately it was under two feet of flood water! Never the less I camouflaged it even more with some cam netting and left it to settle in to it's surroundings.  When I had got to it there was ducks, Little Egret and Snipe right there within feet of it so I am confident once I getin there it's going to be good, really good!

I saw and photographed a Green Sandpiper which was near by, not a surprie because I have seen this bird, or another one, there repeatedly.