Sometimes a photo can only tell half the story, take this one. It doesn't even begin to portray the amount of effort that I have put in. Up until today I hadn't managed to photograph a Phalarope and I knew that this month was going to give me the best opportunity for a while. The Grey Phalarope is a bird that has been a bogey to me for years, I could never seam to find one even when they were reported. Take this week for example, on Wednesday I spent the entire day waiting for a bird that was reported at South Milton Ley, South Devon, it didn't show up and I came away without a sighting or picture, yet again. So when another was reported yesterday at Venford reservoir on Dartmoor, not too far from home and near Ashburton, I just had to get my self down there. In spite of a couple of hours searching, and another birder, not only seeing it but getting a photo, I was still not successful and I was beginning to think I would never see one! I came home for dinner, checked the bird report pages online and saw that two had been reported again for the second day at Upper Tamar Lake which is North Devon, on the border with Cornwall. They were apparently showing well. Off I went again.

Just a bit about Phalaropes and why  they are suddenly being seen  here in almost profusion? 4 in Devon is hardly prolific but it's a nice number, in fact, this week, all around the country from Lancashire to Hampshire, there have been lots of sightings. Grey Phalarope (named as Red Phalaropes in the USA), are Arctic breeding birds. When they migrate south for the winter they migrate over the sea and, in fact spend the winter on tropical seas, apparently sometimes far out to sea. They are seen along the coasts of the UK during their migration, usually after strong winds, storms and gales have blown them ashore. Recently we have had weather like that which answers the question.
So back to this afternoon. I arrived at Tamar Lake, as usual, full of certainty that I would be lucky but at first I still couldn't find either one, and that was in spite of a holidaying birder telling me that he had just seen one!  Where was It! Tamar Lake is a typical large reservoir with a Dam wall, from the shore I scanned with the bins…… and there it was, feeding on the edge of the concrete incessantly. I quickly moved on to the parapet above it and now, after never seeing one before, I had it just beneath me, six feet way. In my usual obsessive way, I spent 3 hours trying to get a good shot, birders came and went, photographers too, but eventually it was just me and the bird. He, or was it she, carried on as though I wasn't there and hardly ever stopped feeding. It was taking the small flies from the edge of the water and was hardly going to be put off feeding  by a mad man with a lens. It reminded me of a delicate ballerina, dressed in the same colours of silver grey and white. My first Phalarope was worth the wait and the searching and I enjoyed my time spent with it. Lets hope Phalaropes are going to be like buses now and we get another one along very soon.

I dont normally make any comments about my own photos but I have to confess that I am very impressed with  these three pictures. I took in excess of 500 today and rejected at least 475!  That's not a good percentage, but I suppose if I finish up with a few good ones then I should be content.