Been there, Dun that

(CLICK ON A PIC AND IT WILL GO BIG)

Beautiful sunshine greeted anyone up and out before 10am. Wonderful photography weather. Fantastic contrasts and highlights. What more would any snapper ask for? So on that note the EFRS was finally ready and on duty at Steart for about 12 midday when the cloud had covered the sky giving a wonderful soft grey colour to everything. All the contrasts were gone and the land was still.
Oh well we soldiered on into the biting if not too strong wind. Boy was it cold. Maybe we're not aclimatised to the season quite yet but it did seem especially cold today. Advice was noted from a fatherly figure to the EFRS but to no avail.

James: At this point I quickly nipped across the carpark and got a distant shot of these fella's.  Unfortunately they are not like the Mute swans and dont come waddling up to you.  Such a shame...

Whoop, whoop (sorry)

There was very little happening on this coastal area. The biggest activity was from this happy gaggle as they wandered around looking at probably far more interesting things than us. They did seem to look at a lot of things. Wonder if any of our readers recognise themselves?

The birds were sparse. Much time was spent fantasising on exotic Gulls but no they were all Herring or Black Headed. Not a Glaucus or Laughing or Slate Backed to be seen. Still I will always enjoy an immature Herring Gull. Fantastic markings.

Immature Herring Gull

As we cycled round the few things of note were a few Little Egrets and one Great White Egret.

Little Egret

Little Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Once we got our eye in a few others came to light. In particular a few Snipe flitting round, Some Curlew and Redshank

Redshank

Black tailed Godwits

Curlew

Then as we cycled back down on the main road parallel with the coast a cry went out. 'SHORT EARED OWL'!!! We managed to see it far off in the distance and I managed to get a couple of record shots

Short Eared Owl

Imediately after that I got this shot

Common Buzzard

(Now why couldn't that be a Short Eared Owl! Such is life.)

Determined to get a better view of this elusive beast we stayed on the road thoroughly expecting it to fly directly over us and onto the reserve. Well why wouldn't it! Then we realised we were stood there in full view and far too obvious so we moved to a lower position but still with good sight of everything. Well when we say this is the reason it was possibly more to do with getting out of the wind. An hour went by and nothing but Lapwings and Crows filled our sights. The leaving cars had bemused passengers wondering why we were standing in a ditch.

Lapwing

As we moved on back to the car the field next to where we were standing had some mildly interesting occupants. Three Dunlin.

Dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

And back to the car. Quite a flat report from quit a flat day save for the some what brief Short Eared Owl. So now we've been there and Dun that! Bring on Spring.........................

A splash of colour on a grey day.  Seen from the pub window.  But which one?  Write your answers on a stamped addressed envelope or leave your comments below :-)