The last couple of days have been more of the same………. garden watching, mostly Blackcaps and it's been fun. Yesterday was spent  trying really hard to get a good photo of the female Blackcap that has been with us for the last few days.  You can accept that at this time of the year not only are the days very short but the light can be very dull as well.  This makes photography more difficult than usual, but my new Pentax K5 can deal with dull conditions better than most, so when the female Blackcap posed off and on, it was quite easy to get some nice shote, and really interesting to see her.  To say she loves apple is an understatement, she prefers it to any other food, including a fat ball which she ignores totally.  She is shy though, and will quickly disappear as soon as there is any hint of movement from the camera lens for example. She is pretty and very photogenic. Having taken lots of photos of her on the same perch I decided to move the slice of apple to see what would happen and hopefully coax it in to a more uncovered spot.   It was interesting to see her appear look for it and then in the end, discover that there was a nice piece of apple close by but in another spot.   I also had a quick visit from a male who came and went in a matter of seconds.

   The "pool set up"  is working OK but I am still waiting for some really bright sunshine to get that really good mirror reflection that I am looking for.  The Dunnock and at times a Robin are quite accepting of the free offerings and I have taken a few shots.

This afternoon, now that it's been a bit drier for a couple of days, I went out to my undisclosed site to try from the hide that I have set up close to a little flooded pool. As I approached, Snipe took to the wing every now and again and when I was almost there at least two were flushed from just in front of the hide. I struggled in to get in to it and got myself set up for a bit of an uncomfortable wait. Nothing arrived unfortunately which was a disappointment, if one had crept back, the photo would have been a bit special. I feel that I just need to be patient and eventually I will have some success.  after an hour I gave up and had as much of a struggle getting out.  I made my way back and then I disturbed two Green Sandpipers, this was too much to resist!  I set up the chair hide quickly and sat in the fading light waiting for them to come back.  It was exciting. After a few minutes things settled down and I heard a Kingfisher calling nearby, always lovely to hear.  A Grey Wagtail put in an appearance and even though the light was fading fast I took a couple of nice shots.