Wilstone’s Winter Birds

I decided on an afternoon visit to Wilstone, despite the lateness, because the sky was so bright and Blue, I did not expect wildly exciting shots, but I met some very interesting people, and several others were out with their cameras.  As it was afternoon with a low sun, the light was good, but none of us expected really interesting subjects, so the exercise of walking and carrying a heavy tripod and two cameras was the greatest benefit.

The water level was very low, so a lot of the shallower parts of the lake were exposed which did mean the Grey Wagtail was busy at the margin, and I ventured down into the mud which at first was dry and reasonably solid, but as I neared the water’s edge it was decidedly boggy and I had to move back unless I fancied getting embedded, and with so few people around, that was foolhardy. I did find some rocks that gave my tripod some support, so at least I managed some shots of the Wagtail, later back on the bank I also was able to follow a Pied Wagtail in its foraging.

I spotted that one particular Gull spent its time on the water with occasional two-second flights to fish for tiddlers, unlike the majority who would fly and swoop to do their fishing, only landing after long spells in the air.

Later another photographer and myself found ourselves watching the successful landing of a Pike, and the angler certainly worked hard, and considering as he informed us he had both hips replaced, it was interesting to watch,. He had been dragging his catch a considerable distance from where started, so had to walk back to get his landing net before completing the operation, thus not all the afternoon’s images were of birds, as I took the opportunity of recording his labours. Later, though I walked past the corner leading eventually to the woods and the path to the Hide, I turned back without any more pictures till I returned to the promontory with its bench and later watched the evening feeding by numerous Fieldfare darting between two favoured trees laden with berries.

Twice I watched a hovering Kestrel, but I was bitterly disappointed by the poor quality of those particular shots, but overall it was an interesting afternoon’s exercise.