I was away last week, at what proved to be an excellent land- and seascape photography course run by Harry Brand -Wheeler (harrybehindthelens). It was in North Norfolk.
I learnt lots about Landscape photography and have posted some of the pictures on Facebook. ( https://www.facebook.com/giles.lury/posts/10159122169413375 )
It did however mean that I didn’t go to the lake for my normal walk and bird ‘shoot.’ However, you can’t go to North Norfolk and not see lots of different birds and I couldn’t help but take a few shots.
Unfortunately, my mind (and my camera settings) was clearly stuck in landscape mode, and some of the birds were some way off, so I apologise in advance that the quality of some of the shots isn’t as good as I would have liked.
One thing that was immediately apparent was that certain birds clearly have preferences for different water-y environments. I didn’t see many Mallards, Canada Geese, Coots or any Heron.
I did see some birds that are regularly at Stocker’s Lane, but here there weren’t just a few of them but flocks of them. The most obvious one being the distinctively red-billed Oystercatcher.
From previous visits to the region I had expected to see egrets and I wasn't disappointed as a number of these long-legged elegant birds duly made an appearance.
There were a number of waders which I don’t see at the Lake and so not surprisingly I didn’t immediately recognise them. Back at home looking at my birds of britain books and online I didnt fare much better becuase the quality of the images isn’t great, so please take the names below as my best 'guestimate' and if anyone knows better please correct me in the comments section below.
Some Knots (?)
Joined by a Ringed Plover (?)
I think this may be a Redshank
and this may be a Wood Sandpiper {- but given how cross it looks in the second shot maybe I have offended it but not recognising it correctly)
I thought at first this might have been a Goosander, but now i'm pretty cerain it is actually a red-breasted Merganser.
I did miss my weekly trip to Stocker’s Lane, but the course I did was great and I still managed to photograph some birds, so all in all not a bad result - and I hope dear reader you forgive me for a blog that has been more A man, his camera and a coastline than the normal A man, his camera and a lake.
And in case you havent see the more seascape photos, here are a couple
(Footnote – my camera seems to have developed a fault so anxiously waiting to see if it can be fixed – I do have a spare but its older and not as good so no promised on what the next blog will hold)
Comments