Photographs taken on Friday 2nd. April

This was the end of our week's holiday in Norfolk. Left our holiday cottage at Blakeney at 6.30am so that we could call at Snetisham on the way back and catch the Knot spectacle. Very high tide was promised. Got to Snetisham at about 7.30 very long walk to the hides. At the first hide no trace of the knot. In the second hide there were hundreds of oyster catchers but apparently no knot - the light was very poor. After a time I noticed what I thought was gravel - moving - turned out to be hundreds of knot all huddled up.

As you can see there were tens of avocet there as well. During the couple of hours we were there the knot hardly moved. I tried photographs at speeds between 2 seconds and 1/1000sec. but with poor light & little movement I did not get the photograph I was looking for - where was the marsh harrier when I wanted one!

There were also tens of black tailed godwit:

but they were equally unexciting. On our long walk back to the car we saw a barn owl out hunting and it landed on a distant post:

Photographs taken on Wed. 31st. March and Thursday 1st. April

We spent most of both days at our favourite reserve at Cley Next the Sea. One of target birds for visiting Norfolk was the Avocet. Here the damp overcast weather helped me - taking photographs of black and white birds in strong sunlight is very difficult - exposure wise. This is one of the best ones I managed:

This was taken with my Canon 500mm lens with 1.4 converter, ISO1000 f8 @ 1/8000sec.

One of my other targets was to photograph birds in flight. I managed this one of a greylag goose:

This was taken with the same setup f8@ 1/4000sec.

Black tailed godwit in flight:

Same setup, f8@ 1/400sec.

And the most difficult one was to get a lapwing in flight:

Again same setup f8@ 1/6400sec.

Photograph taken on Tuesday 30th. March

Another overcast / rainy day. We went to Hickling Broad NWT. On a better day weatherwise this would have been a very interesting reserve. There are some good hides and a variety of habitat. On the day the only interesting shot was this one of two greater crested grebe:

As you can see this was at a fair distance with my usual kit (but no 1.4 converter) - ISO1000 f10 @ 1/800sec.

Photograph taken on Monday 29th. March

On Monday we went to Welney WWT. The weather was awful. The centre building is impressive but I did not find the hides very useful - perhaps it was the weather! They all seem to be in a line - giving similar views to a long marsh. The only photograph I took was this one of a little egret:

Photographs taken on Sunday 28th. March

On Sunday we went to Titchwell RSPB. Unfortunately Titchwell is undergoing serious work to stop the sea encroaching further into the marsh. In the meantime Parrinder Hide has been lost and there are only two hides in the reserve. It was only at the Fen hide that we saw any birds. We had distant views of a marsh harrier and fairly close views of some snipe - but in reeds so they did not make good photographs. In fact the only photograph I took that day that I like is this one of an immature black headed gull. It was hovering over the pond in front of the hide and diving into the water - at it's reflection?

Taken with my usual kit with 1.4 multiplier - 1000ISO f8 @ 1/5000sec.

Walking out to the beach we had distant views of skylarks but not decent photographs.

Photographs taken on Saturday 27th. March

On Friday we travelled to Norfolk for a week's holiday - staying at a cottage in Blakeney. On Saturday we did not want to travel too far so went to Cley Next the Sea - only about 2 miles away. We narrowly missed seeing bearded tits! The photographs that I did manage are:

A pair of mating greylag geese:

Using my Canon 50D with 500mm f4 lens - 1000ISO f8 @ 1/2000sec.

And a pair of flying shelduck:

Using the same equipment and the same settings.