Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Shore Thing

After a swim at the gym this morning I hoped to get out for some photographs for a while after lunch once I dropped Sue at the Fleetwood shops – what’s new then?

I took a quick look at pools on the Nature Park where I counted the waterfowl, 14 Tufted Duck, 28 Coot, 4 Gadwall, 2 Shoveler and 2 Little Grebe. The Gadwall stayed out of camera range but the tufties weren’t too bothered about having their picture taken. We are all guilty of it. Taking photographs of the resplendent drakes whilst ignoring the females who advertise their presence and desirability with a little more subtlety of plumage. So today to redress the balance I took a picture of the drake but also a picture of just one of the females that accompanied him everywhere he went.

Tufted Duck


Tufted Duck


Shoveler


Up at Rossall shore the weather closed in quickly with heavy windswept drizzle – nothing new there either. But I switched to ISO 400 and found some birds to picture before I returned to my car 30 minutes later where I put the heater on full blast to dry specs, bins, telephoto lens and camera. The rain blasted across from the North East so much that I didn't even get chance to walk along the shore and count the waders. At least there are a few pictures I managed to take before the drenching.

Knot


Redshank


Sanderling


Sanderling


Sanderling


Turnstone


Black-headed Gull



4 comments:

  1. Great shots, I really like the Sanderling.

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  2. Nice wader shots. Were there any Purple Sandpiper there? I saw my first ever one at Fleetwood..........

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  3. Hi, Purple Sandpipiers are now very rare at Fleetwood with the occasional one turning up across the bay at Heysham. A decline like lots of other sp I'm afraid.

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  4. Those Tufted Ducks seem to be so tame. I've yet to find one around here even though they're also common in Japan :(

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