Pics through the rain...

What a miserable day! I headed down to Black Hole Marsh in the evening after work and took a few pics through the rain. It was very windy and rather dark there so my tripod was invaluable to get these shots. Snipe and Blackwit taken at ISO 3200 approx 1/100 sec at f5.6. The Ringed Plover shots are from yesterday.

Snipe

Black Tailed Godwit

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

I actually RAN for this Cuckoo!!! And bugger was it worth it...

I did my usual 6 til 7:30am stint at Black Hole Marsh but the best of the early morning birding was this Dunlin which was rather close. It was still dark and I had to shoot at annoyingly high ISO but could just about get away with it as it was close:

I 'felt' as though there was something good to shoot on patch so I booked the afternoon off work. This proved to be a rather good decision. I spent most of my afternoon at Black Hole Marsh and the Wood Sand showed relatively well (still pretty distant but closer than it has been lately):

And now the part that the title of this post mentions... When I arrived at Black Hole Marsh for the first time this afternoon I was informed that the Cuckoo had been showing well in front of Island Hide and that I had missed it by a matter of minutes. AGAIN. So when I spotted it in front of Stafford Marsh at around 5pm I mentioned it to Sue so that she could come and get some snaps of it too, and then I ran. Yes, RAN; not easy with a near 10kg camera set up! I was determined to get close enough for a pic as all the other keen birders had already managed to get decent views of it (the majority of which have been whilst I was at work and couldn't twitch it). I had nice views of it on the lines outside of the FSB/Hide; it was pretty distant to be fair, perhaps 50 ish metres. However, the light was PERFECT so I managed to get these pics (all heavily cropped but the decent light allows this):

Such a shame this one isn't sharp!!

BRILLIANT! Patch tick and even UK tick. Afternoon of holiday well spent? I think so...

Sanderling at Black Hole Marsh (only my 2nd on patch!)

Just a couple of pics as I'm rather busy! Taken at 20:45 so pretty dark (actually going dark rather than just being dull) and as such the pics are rather poor in terms of image quality. Ah well it's my best of this species so far so it's blog-worthy none-the-less!

Sandpipers galore! Wood Sand up close pics...

I headed over to Black Hole Marsh after work and met Sue who was just leaving... never a good sign! She said that a group of Dunlin, Ringed Plover and the Wood Sand had been showing well and pretty close but had now moved away. I had planned on going after the Tufted Duck which has been on patch lately but I relocated the Wood Sand and waited, waited, waited... eventually it came close enough to Island Hide to warrant taking my camera out of it's case. Unfortunately this was at 8pm so the light was ATROCIOUS. Only plus side of taking pics after sunset is that the water can look relatively still, although this only really helped a couple of the pics. It's a shame I wasn't there with Sue when the conditions were more conducive of nice photos. There was also a Greenshank which remained distant as per usual this year. It seems as though all photographers have been struggling with Greenshank pics so I'll put some up anyway despite being a bit ropey. I also snapped an angry Lapwing. Hopefully I'll get out of bed early enough to check out the marsh before work tomorrow morning; the water levels are just perfect for wading birds at the moment. Roll on something mega rare...

Very smart Greenshank. Shame it was so distant.

And again.

Lapwing

And a few dusk/night pics of the Wood Sandpiper:

Black Hole Marsh goes quiet!

Small wader numbers have dropped off significantly around the Axe with very little about. Just a handful of Dunlin and Ringed Plover now. As such I got quite desperate with the pics and the results are as follows:

Curlew

Little Egret

Shelduck

And a B & W version of the Dunlin pic from a recent post:

Bird pics from the around the Axe today

Just a quick post as I'm exhausted! I went out very early again this morning and managed the Dunlin shot as below at about 06:15. Needless to say that it was rather dull at this time; pretty pleased what I managed to do with the pic though (the top and bottom pics are the same image file). Also included is a pic of a Kingfisher and part of a group of Black-Tailed Godwit (both really naff; I was desperate for material to make this post of acceptable length...).

Dunlin

Kingfisher (female)

Black-Tailed Godwit

Dunlin + pretty much perfect reflection

More bird pics from Black Hole Marsh (some good'ens...)

I was yet again up at 05:30 and out with the camera before having to rush back for work. I must be mad... It was worthwhile though as I got distant but nice views of a single Wood Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh. If only it posed like this stunning Common Sandpiper did:

Very early morning is a good time to try photographing birds at Black Hole Marsh as the water is usually nice and calm so pics don't come out with distracting backgrounds; they're a pet hate of mine!

I headed out to the marsh for a 2nd visit straight after work but didn't see or photograph anything blog-worthy. A 3rd visit in the evening was a bit more successful, I met Phil there and we had a good look around BHM and Colyford Common. The number of Green Sandpipers was rather surprising with at least 20 individuals counted. Dunlin and Ringed Plover numbers are remaining fairly steady as they have been for the last few days now (31 Dunlin and 15-20 Ringed Plover rough count as we could hear more Ringos than we could see).

A Common Gull put on a fairly good display (by Common Gull standards anyway):

And this young Moorhen posed in front of Island Hide for a minute or so:

Eagerly awaiting something rare now; just need the water level on Black Hole Marsh to drop back down to the level it was last week and wader numbers should keep high or hopefully increase!