Attack of the Clones

"Begun, the Clone Wars have"

 

 Today there was a small chance that I could set the camera to less than 800 ISO...

Today, there was... sun!

 

The Empire had also noticed however and had sent out one of its drones to scan the vicinity.  What a mean looking critter it was..

Darth Vader's drone

 

 

 

I carefully slipped out and outmaneuvered the drone.  Making the jump to light speed I arrived at Catcott. 

 Kestrel in a post apocalyptic war zone

 

 Wigeon not doing a lot

 

 High flying Snipe

 

 Wigeon doing a little bit

 Shovellers in front of the Tor

 

 

It was pleasant enough, but not a lot was happening.  No Peregrines to scare the ducks.  Not even a Marsh harrier.

I climbed back into the Millennium Falcon and warp jumped over to Greylake.

 

In the car park there was loads of little bird flitting about the place.

 

You get the idea...

 

I headed over to the hide. Scanning the skies for a Peregrine or maybe even a TIE fighter.  Sadly neither were willing.

However there were plenty of ducks, along with a swimming Snipe.

Got his Gold swimming badge.

 

This Teal looks upside down!

 

Again, it was quite quiet.  Luckily a Marsh harrier did provide some action.  But she didn't catch anything...

Then something weird happened.  Andrew walked into the hide!  I nearly got up to say hello.  The man in question looked slightly bemused at my overly friendly disposition.  I realised at the last moment that it was in fact a clone!

Cloned Andrew

I decided it was best to exit the hide, just in case the Clone had been sent by Darth Vader.  Begun the Clone Wars have...

 

A Vicious Cycle

I had a very brief window of opportunity this morning.  So I seized the moment and headed out.  It was raining and windy - default weather.  I thought I would stay car bound and head out to Westhay and then on to Tealham.

As I approached Westhay I noticed the "Swan" field was full of Egrets - really full.  I pulled up behind a familiar vehicle - a large truck thing.  The driver popped out.  It was Graham (thanks for reminding me).  A very knowledgeable and friendly fellow who takes some rather nice photos.

He had been watching the Egrets as well.  But even more interesting were his photos of 2 CRANES that had been there a few days ago!  An exciting development... Hopefully they will visit again sometime!

I scanned for a yellow bill amongst all the black ones.  Couldn't see one sadly.

I should have bought the 50mm... The lens cant really show how many Egrets there were.

I would estimate 80+!!!!

 

 

 I said farewell to Graham and headed over to Tealham.  Now it was here I encountered problems... There were cyclists everywhere.  Now many of them were not the docile, social types.  No, there were the vicious cyclists.  Gaudy colours, wafer thin frames and funny sun glasses.  They can cycle faster than I can drive.

I was dodging, weaving and turning trying to avoid them.  Everytime I stopped an angry biker in spray on pink would be wobbling passed me.  Kestrels and Buzzards were flying up everwhere, clearly worried by the luminous colours and bad attitudes.  There was no chance of me getting any photos with these guys around :-(

 This Great White sought shelter in the middle of a boggy field.

Cyclists cant get up here...

 

I left the moor, hoping to find a lycra free zone.  Back to Westhay...

The sun started to come out... and a Kestrel was sitting on a post looking rather lovely in the light.  I drove passed pretending not to notice.  I carefully turned the car around...

He didnt move for  at least 10 seconds :-)

Pleased

I was feeling rather happy and drove on back to the Egret field.  I took another quick scan...

The bugger wouldnt turn round and I was due to meet a friend in 10 minutes... I was late but you know how it is.  Sometimes you end up in a vicious cycle...

Blame the weather

(CLICK ON A PIC AND IT WILL GO BIG)

Apologies I'm feeling a little enigmatic today as you have to be a seriously dedicated XTC fan (like myself) to get this reference. In other words I couldn't find any other suitable picture.

Greylake today after doing some manualfocusuk stuff over at Burrow Mump. A rather traumatic experience but you'll have to read that for yourself. Meanwhile the sun was out along with Mike Tout who I spotted at the Mump. They were having lunch and waiting for the Bewick and Whooper Swans to appear. I don't think they did. Anyway as I turned into the carpark I passed Carl Bovis coming out. He was a bit late for the Arsenal match and couldn't hang around I suppose. Mike told me he had bagged a Sparrow Hawk at ten paces from the cab of his van. Humph, typical.

Lots of ducks, I mean LOTS of ducks

Wigeon in flight

Wigeon landing

Female Wigeon in flight

and a Lapwing

Look at the colours on its back, fantastic

Photobombed botheration

Botheration

and even more Wigeon

Ah something different, a pair of Shovelers

Male Shoveler

Male Shoveler coming in to land

All this was from the raised hide at Greylake. I had left Mike chatting and he went into the comfort of the lower old hide, it must be an age thing! There was a procession of people all heading towards the hide but thankfully they were all nesh and opted for the old hide to. That left me to go up the boardwalk by myself where I met an old friend we had helped out a while ago over at Steart when his car wouldn't start. It was Shane. Great photographer, have a look for him on Twitter @sharkeee

We had a good chat in the howling gale for quit a time. 

All the cause of the Botherations along with her mate

Getting a bit of a bother herself!

One of two GWE in the fields

I do like a Lapwing. This one was up close and stayed a while

One of two Starlings that fought over a worm

and another Shoveler

Rook

Pretty female Wigeon

Very handsome Teal

and last but not least a radiant Starling

A quiet day but the light was finally half decent. I could actually get some useful pictures at last. Not that I've been blaming the weather of course!