Little Owl again.............

I made it out last Monday for a days shooting with my friend Bob, on what was a very cold, frosty and misty day.

It was a real shame that the light didn't approve during the day because the frosty settings would have made for some super images.
We spent some time at Lee Valley in the hope of seeing Bittern on the ice, but they didn't show up, so we moved on to the Lee Valley Nature Photographers hides and set up for some staged shots with the resident Jays, Great and Blue Tits and the ever present (and very territorial !) Robins !
I'll post some shots from there once I've gone through my cards.

On the way back, we came across a Little Owl who was sitting near the road - looking rather cold, but quite happy to pose for us.

As I said above - just wish the light had been better........

Cold Snap

At this moment large areas of the UK have faced extremely cold weather, snow, freezing fog and all of the problems that this brings to our infrastructure.

Our wildlife on the otherhand, just gets on with it, and on my walks with my dogs, it never ceases to amaze me how hardy these creatures are.

Today I took a walk with my friend Calum over to the Chase, near to my house.

There was still a few inches of snow, but that was thawing fast so the ground was pretty boggy under foot.

We saw a lot of species including Sparrow hawk, Green Woodpeckers, Teal, Tufted Duck, Woodcock, Tufted Duck and the more common Swans, Moorhen, Coots etc.,.

Two species I was looking for specifically were Fieldfare and Redwing. We have a bumper berry crop this year, and so these birds have moved into the area and are making the most of natures larder.

They are very scittish however and tend to stay low in the bushes, so cluttered views are all that are possible at the moment.

Earlier this year in the February cold snap, the berries had been depleted and the Redwing were eating the berries thatweare in more photogenic places - this was one image from then and will have to do for now.......