Saturday 18 February 2012

LAPWINGS ON THE WING



Managed to get a couple of hours at Stithians Res yesterday afternoon,there  were quite a few birds around mostly Lapwings, Canada Geese, a few Teal, Widgeon, and Snipe. The most noticeable thing was the lack of over wintering Duck, numbers are far down on previous years.I managed only five Tufted Duck and they were far out.
So with 200+ Lapwing around I thought I would have a play and get some flight shots, Now these can be pretty quick in flight and in large numbers which makes it difficult to pick out a single bird.


Add to this the confines of the hide with a small viewing hatch, and a 400mm lens handheld and it made for an interesting 40mins.
So after getting a few bruised fingers and skinned knuckles I thought I'd make do with what I got.
So here's the results of the afternoon.
It was also nice to meet  a young family from Nottingham who were walking around the res a distance of 4 1/2 miles.




THE LAPWING SET.




























WIDGEON.




TEAL.
I don't like you pointing that thing at me.





Ha Ha beat you I learned this trick off an Ostrich.





SNIPE

I must learn how to do that.









6 comments:

  1. Brilliant flight shots Monts,must try to visit Stiths soon.
    Cya soon.
    John.

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  2. Lovely photos, Monty. You were well rewarded for the scrapes and bruises! Lovely to see the Snipe and a lot more clearly than many bloggers manage with their hunt the reeds for a Snipe photos, mind you I would be happy with any photo or even just a sighting of one ;-) Great captions too!

    I enjoyed the sculpture like stone arrangements on the last post too.

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  3. We see Lapwings sometimes mixed in with the Snow Buntings during the winter. I always consider myself pretty lucky to spot them!! Chrome is still giving me a hard time about commenting from my other blog, I don't know what the problem is!! Hope you are having a great weekend! ~karen

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  4. It is not easy to get those flight shots, congratulations!

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  5. A beautiful collection Monts, congratulations!

    Have a lovely Sunday.

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  6. Great Lapwing Flight shot and those Wigeon and Teal images are very good as well. Great light.

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