HUNT FOR PURPLE HERON

Got up at 05.15 this morning looked out of the window and it was clear sky though still dark, I had already decided on the days activity.
I was going to College Res at Penryn near Falmouth to crack the Purple Heron that has been there over the past 2 days as I have not seen one for about 4 years and wanted a few photo's.
So packed up a small backpack, with just a couple of lenses,  Ring flash , and a couple of snack bars, also decided to take my Wellie Boots as I remembered from a few years ago it could be a bit muddy.
I set of at around 06.50am and arrived at College at 07.15, it was now much lighter and after the short wooded walk came to the Southern end of the Res.

EARLY MORNING COLLEGE RES.

Oh how peaceful and serene it all looks from here, but after a few metres the boardwalk became broken and then disappeared completely and I found myself in a stretch of 30 metres of sticky mud.

"MUD MUD GLORIOUS MUD"

Anyway I managed to struggle through this bit and finally made it to to more solid ground and walked to the North end, but no sign of the Purple Heron. In fact there was not a lot of life on the res only a few Mallard, Canada Geese, 4 Grey Herons and a couple of Tufted Ducks.

VIEW OF THE NORTHERN END.

So now I had to make my way back  across the mud and boardwalk to get to the other side of the res.

Whilst crossing one muddy part I stepped onto a rock and then put my other foot on what appeared a piece of wood, but my foot went straight down and the mud came over the top of my Wellie.

Try as I may I could not get my foot out of the mud, (now this stuff is also very smelly) so finally I had to take my foot out of the boot and luckily I managed to set my foot on a fairly solid piece of mud though it was soaking almost immediately.

I had managed to get the Camera and Tripod on a solid bit of ground, It was now that my weird sense of humour took over, I started laughing out load as I  tried to pull my wellie from the mud.If someone had happened to come along they would have thought it was the Lunatic of the Lake at large, What I was thinking was what if both feet had got stuck, maybe in Six months time someone would come strolling along and find a Skeleton standing in a Pair Of Wellies stuck in the mud.

ONE MUDDY WELLIE AND A SOGGY FOOT.

Any way I continued around to the other side of the lake, and the conditions were much better with only a few muddy patches. I still did not get to find the Heron, and that was not the end of the saga.

Walking back to the entrance I stepped to one side of a muddy patch and both feet slipped away and I went in one direction and the Camera and Tripod went in the other. This time I took a much harder fall and was quite winded for a few moments.

So it was back to the car where I had a pair of wet weather trousers I put on, and then it was home for a clean shower and a change of clothing. After all this I did not get the Purple Heron, but I did see a nice Male Garganey which was a year tick.

BOARDWALK.

MORE MUD.

SCENE OF THE SECOND FALL.

MALE GARGANEY.

MALE GARGANEY.

If the heron turns up again maybe I will go back  tomorrow.