Stone Curlews

Whilst up at the BTO's head office in Thetford, Norfolk for an 'A Focus on Nature' workshop day (more about that in my next blogpost) I spent two evenings at Weeting Heath, a nature reserve that is managed primarily for the rare Stone Curlew...

People often complain they are distant at this site, but they showed very well (particularly on the second night) for us...

With so many birds at this site (at least 6), things began to hot up with numerous birds displaying!

Things very quickly began to get violent!

And the result of such violence, feathers everywhere (oh how I was hoping for one of those feathers to drift into the hide!!)

Waxwings, Awards and a National Mega!

The past week has been an excellent one for a variety of reasons! Last weekend I found some local waxwings which for once were showing low down enough to achieve a smooth green background.

On friday I also attended the RSPCA Young Photography Awards Ceremony. To my amazement I won the 12-15 category with the image below (a result that was far better than I ever expected)

Finally, with news breaking of a Buff Bellied Pipit at Queen Mother Reservoir on Thursday, it was perhaps inevitable that today I was down there photographing the wonderfully confiding bird. Unfortunately at QMR low angles are virtually impossible due to the raised bank but hopefully these photos do the birds justice...

As always thanks for reading!

Also apologies for the randomly placed copyrights on my image (it is a fault I am currently trying to resolve!)