Drake Shoveler at Par

Just a handful of ducks now remain at Par beach pool including this drake Shoveler.  For some reason this bird has always chosen to stay at the back of the pool until this morning.  I managed to get this shot when it was about ten yards away.  The lens is very close to the water surface, hence the out of focus "boket" effect.  Aperture is F/5.6

The Goosanders have now departed the neighbouring St Andrew's Pool but I took this shot a couple weeks back.  After a review of the images, I overlooked this shot.

Female Goosander at St Andrew's Pool, Feb 2012.

A day at Walmsley Sanctuary

The collection of various images below are the result of several hours spent in a couple hides at the CBWPS reserve. The site is looking stunning and the birds are fairly close too. Pick of the crop are some displaying Gadwalls and Northern Shoveler, a distant record shot of the wintering Hen Harrier, a showy male Pheasant and a very close shot of a Little Grebe. The highlight though was the steady increase of Sand Martins through the day... at dusk as we were leaving, I would estimate up to 1000 birds hawking insects on the reserve.

EXIF detail: Aperture Priority. Aperture F/5. Shutter 1/500th. ISO 320 Focal Length 600mm. WB Cloudy. EV 0.0