Slavonian Grebe ~ Littlebrook Lake, Dartford, Kent - 21.01.13

With news that the Grebe was on the smallest lake, near Littlebrook Power Station we tried to locate it on our way home Saturday, but was looking at the wrong lake.

So Sunday morning the right lake and the bird was still there !!

Both Me & Richard had a great day with the bird and the constant snow falling, a few others also came for a look.

Not happy with any of the images, the lot went straight in the bin !!

Snow V Auto-focus

Snow won ...

Now i've got a problem, the weather is meant to get colder. The lake will freeze and the bird will move on ..

So it was either work or Grebe !!

I had a plan get all my gear on and take the camera, if the bird's there stay and get trigger happy !!

If not go to work ...

One end of the lake was frozen over but the best end, where it was possible to get down to water level was free from ice. 

For the next 3 hrs, I had the privilege of having this superb bird all to myself and what a little stunner it was !!

Manual Exp

 speeds of 1/500 - 1/1000

iso 400 ~ F4 - F5.6

Some with fill-flash 580exII with Better-Beamer

on High Speed Sync at - 2 1/3

Back Button Focus - wink wink Jono ..

Slavonian Grebe

It tried to get to the trees twice, where it had rested the day before but the ice formed a barrier which it couldn't work out how to cross and both times charged back down the lake !!

It then went in to this alert type posture 

Upright and  head shape changed

Amazing encounter with a rare Grebe.

Which moved lakes the next day.

A few more on my Website !!

Black-bellied Dipper ~ Thetford, Norfolk - 12.01.13

With the weather forecast ruling out taking an image in the South of England, a quick search revealed the East to fair much better.

So we targeted the Dipper in Thetford, Norfolk parked in the car park by the Three Nunn's Bridge walked across to the other side ... Easy as that ..

There it was, such a confiding bird ..

Didn't take long to work out where I wanted the bird, it took longer to wait for it to move away so I could do some tiding up, removed some offending twigs and waited for the bird to do as it was told !!!

Just didn't quite happen quick enough, 3 hrs to wait, whilst everyone else went trigger crazy in the shadows !!

But it eventually came ...

Black-bellied Dipper

 

The lack of light as is the norm at the moment meant iso 800 ~ F5 ~ 1/200

More dof  would of been nice, should of tried it !!

Two nits ....

The background was perfect without highlights on the water earlier in the morning !!

And i wished i'd removed that straw stem whilst tiding things up !!

Ring-billed Gull ~ Gosport, Hampshire - 25.11.12

Never tire of photographing gull's and with the return of the Gosport adult bird in winter plumage for at least it's 11th winter what better target to aim for !!

Walpole Park, South Street

This clever bird's diet is aided by people coming to feed the swan's and with easy food available why not keep returning ...

Ring-billed Gull ~ ad.W

Larus delawarensis

Now compare to Summer Plumaged bird !!

Same bird and location taken 16.03.12

Yellow-Legged Gull ~ Jolly Farmers, Crayford, Kent - 20.11.12

It's that time again Gullfreaks when large Larus species start massing up near landfill sites and the clean white headed birds cause confusion !!

So en route to the timber yard, I did a slight detour to check the gulls at some waste ground, formerly Dusseks along side The Jolly Farmers Pub.

A great area, with Viridor, Clubbs, Rainham tip and the Council tip all close by.

The gulls rest up here and scanning through had 2 ad. + 1 1st.W Yellow-legged and a ad.W Med Gull.

Then I found a clean white headed bird, the YLG's had streaking compared to this bird. The bill's shape, colour, size and parallel sided bill differing from the YLG's.

The wing markings, far to much black and no pale tongues !!!

It seems to fit YLG !!

Eyes are really pale  ..

Yellow-Legged Gull ~ ad.W

To much black on the underwing for a Caspian  !!