Wildlife Photographic Journals

Marshside in the Gloom

I went over to Marshside RSPB at Southport on Saturday afternoon, despite the dire weather conditions, and met up with a fellow bird photographer in one of the hides. It was very quiet with most of the photography action occuring in the first 10 minutes with a solitary snipe

and a hyperactive Common Sandpiper which disturbed the snipe, before disappearing itself

All was then quiet for the next two and half hours and I passed the time watching the Glossy Ibis at very long range through the binoculars. Just before the hide was due to close a male shoveler came into range. I could not decide if this was in eclipse plummage or a young one.

A head shot showing that remarkable filtering beak (unfortunately due to the image size on the Blog you cannot see the filtering filaments that show up in the high res image)