Morning light

The last weekend before the clocks changed provided some of the best light I've seen so far this year.

Pretty much all bird species are in breeding plumage and the males are showing off looking for a mate.

Male Pheasants are particularly colourful and will display regularly at this time of year. Carefully choosing your position for the rising, or setting, sun can result in some spectacular images.

I'm rather proud of this one.......

Norfolk - the rest of the trip

So what else did we do in Norfolk ?

I was after particular shots, rather than record shots and so my photography was limited - I wanted good light and if that didn't happen, then I was happy to just look and show the other guys around the area I know so well and love.

Different birds were moving around each day - we saw Teal, Gadwal, Avocet, Ringed Plover, Snow Bunting, Pink Footed Geese and many other species.

My favourite shot of the weekend was this one of a Teal;



All in all, a great weekend - good fun, some serious photography and best of all - a long weekend in my favourite place of all.

Jolly boys trip to Norfolk - Day one

I arranged a long weekend for myself and 3 pals to North Norfolk last weekend.

To be honest, it was quite daunting to know that I had 3 guys with me, 2 of whom had never explored the area and as you know, wildlife cannot be ordered to arrive on demand !

3 of us headed up early on Saturday morning with the 4th member of the group travelling up later in the day.

The targets for this visit were Barn Owls and waders.

The early start paid dividends as soon as we hit what I call 'the zone' i.e., 5 miles inland from the coast. On the journey through the zone, we counted 5 Barnies - all close to the road and showing well.

Showing well though is one thing - getting the shots I was after was a different matter. The forecast was for sun - we got sea mist and flat light.

We carried on to our chosen location, and sure enough, saw another pair of Barnies - my friends were thrilled as just seeing Barnies is very special, but getting anything other than a record shot was not on the cards for this morning......

The evening proved just as frustrating. I took the lads to another well known spot and armed with some serious kit (one of our number had blagged a mighty Canon 800mm f5.6 for the weekend), we set up and waited. Unfortunately, the wind had increased during the day and was not going to subside. We saw one Barnie, but the excess of wind noise had him making off to a more sheltered area - never to be seen again.

We retired to the cottage encouraged by having seen at least 7 Barn Owls during our first day, but none had been particularly photogenic...........did we get anymore during our stay ? We certainly did, and here's a taster........more from the trip to follow......