The Bittern and the Grebe

The Salvonian Grebe continued with

it's stay on the Activity Lake at Top Barn

Farm, and with a decent forecast for

Saturday I could hardly resist another

go at it, here's a shot from the

day.

A trip to Upton Warren was next to

try and grab a few shots of a very

showy Bittern.

It had been reported most of the

week from the North Moors pool.

I arrived to find a couple of my

mates grabbing a few photo's as it had

already been showing quite well that

morning.

Bob had said "that it seemed to be

showing on the hour" more or less.

We sat and waited as it was about

an hour since it was last seen, sure

enough out from the reeds crept

the bittern.

The bittern continued to show really

well, stalking the reeds in search of it's

next meal. I think it must of caught at

least six good sized roach while I was

there, We assumed it must have been

preparing itself for it's journey onto

it's breeding grounds wherever they

maybe, here's just a small amount

of the shots I managed to get.

Rain Stop's Play! - Part 3 - Salthouse

Salthouse proved a little better, Snow Bunting
being the main quarry, although photographing
them was a bit of a task, mainly due to the
amount of people milling around in such a small
area. The average weekend photographer or
holiday maker took chase causing the birds to
take to the air.

The main bird photographers had other plans, they

laid there traps (small amounts of seed stratigically

placed) and sat and waited for them to come.

Eventually most decided to adopt the sit and

wait approach and most came away with a decent

shot or too.

Apart from the Snow Buntings there were Turnstones

and Teal close by which provided us with something

to do while the Snow Buntings weren't playing.

The day virtually at an end we decided to use the

last available bit of light there was at Titchwell as

we were rained of in the morning.

The main reserve was pretty quite to be fair, and

what there was, was a fair way off for photographs.

The beach was better though with Turnstone,

Oystercatcher and Sanderling being the main species,

we settled down and made the most of light.

Here's just a small amount of what I got!

Not a bad day considering the ever changing weather.

Sunday was a complete wash out. The Met predicted

heavy rain and they didn't let us down. I awoke at

06.ooam ready for another go and hoped the Met

were wrong but just for a change they were

right!.. Bloody Marvelous.

That brought the weekend to a close rather quickly,

so in one and a bit days I did get to see and

photograph what I wanted, but it could have been

better, here's hoping for a better week in June...

I've got a week planned.

Rain Stops Play! - Part 2 - Holkam

Holkam - A massive exspanse of beach and quite

daunting when you first see it, especially when

your looking for small birds.

My Dad and I made our way through the woods

to the start of the beach, not really sure where to

go first we made our way to the shoreline.

With little effort we soon found Oystercatcher and

Redshank feeding within the channels that the tide

had made, far to spooky though for photographs and

the dreaded weather had started again.

As we made our way accross the beach we spoke to

a couple of birders who quickly pointed us in the

right direction for the Shorelark, It didn't take us

long to find them, about 14 were feeding quite

happliy.

Photographing them was quite tricky as the rain

didn't let up!

With time pressing on we made our way to the

car, just as we were packing our bit and pieces

away a Barn Owl started to hunt the field next

to us.

The camera was soon back out of the bag!!

Next Salthouse!

Salvonian Grebe

A first for Holt.. if I'm right, and I just couldn't let it go

without first seeing it.

The bird had settled at Top Barn Farm on the edge

of Holt Fleet.

When I arrived late yesterday afternoon the bird was

some 30 feet from the bank, as I settled down into

position I couldn't believe my luck when it started to

swim towards me, at one point I struggled to focus. As

a result all the below pictures are virtually all full

frame shot's.

Rain Stops Play!

My first visit to Norfolk was about to be spoilt by the good
old british weather. I'd hoped for a couple of hours birding
when we arrived on Friday but the strong winds and heay rain
soon put pay to that, We could only hope that the sunny spells
forecast for Saturday came through.
Saturday morning came around and as usual I was up nice and
early along with my dad who was accompanying me on this
visit, we were soon ready and on our way to our first stop
Titchwell.

We arrived at Titchwell and within a few minutes of getting
underway the heavens opened, it just started to spit at first
but soon turned fairly heavy (not the best for photography)
we soon made our way to the first hide (Parrinder I think it
was called) mainly for bit of cover, as there wasn't really
much to speak of in view.

The rain only lasted half an hour before it started to ease up
and we decided to make a move up towards the beach.
As we made our way onto the beach we could see that
the tide was just starting to ebb and there were plenty of
birds in view including Oystercatcher's Sanderling, Black Tailed
Godwit's and Turnstone.

I tried made best to get as close as I could to the Birds just so
I could get a few shots, as I did (and was almost ready) the
bloody heavens opened up again..Bloody marvelous. I couldn't
believe my luck.


For the rest of our time at Titchwell it pretty much stayed the
same, rain stopping and starting never really easing off for
any time. I did mange a few shots of Turnstone in between
showers which was nice.





Next we thought we'd try Holkham for the Shorelark that
had been reported.