Snipe early this morning. 24th Jan 2017.

An early start this morning as Snipe was the target species for my camera today.

As it happened everything was frozen solid as I arrived at my canvas hide in the reeds at 7 am and no self respecting snipe was prepared to venture out on the ice!

Fortunately by about 9:30 things were warming up... except my toes! and a few snipe flew in and luckily one landed really close to my hide... Bingo!

A couple of hours on the Amble marshes this morning. 14th Jan 2017.

Drake and duck Goosanders

I spent some time in the new hide at the Amble marshes this morning with Iain & Dave.

The first time I'd seen Goosanders in our reserves of Walmsley & Middle Amble, 1 male and 2 females.

Also had a distant pic of one of two Snipe that were hiding in the corner of a channel.

A pair of Stonechat were also busy feeding on some of the many gnats and midges in the air despite the freezing temperature today.

Thousands of Golden Plover and Lapwing on and over the marshes this morning.

Snipe

Female Stonechat

Female Stonechat

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Bird flocks at Walmsley

A flock of 66 Black Tailed Godwit were feeding in the meadow beside the road this afternoon.

There were also several hundred Lapwing taking advantage of the lower water levels inside the reserve.

Also present were 3 Green Sandpipers, 5 Pochard, 5 Little Egret, numerous Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler etc. along with many hundreds of Snipe that were showing really well.

Snipe

I had a couple of hours to spare this afternoon and it was good light so popped out to Walmsley to check out the birdlife.

Most of the reserve was frozen with a few holes in the ice where the ducks were dabbling.

There was a snipe feeding fairly close to the hide so here are a few shots as it fed in the sunshine.

A snipe on the ice

Snipe

Snipe

The ducks will follow later when I've processed all the files!

Spot the Snipe

Snipe are masters of camouflage and the next two shots show 5 then 6 snipe on the edge of an island at Walmsley in the early morning.
You need to look closely to spot them all!
The third image shows one at Davidstow nestled down in the grass near a pool and one would think it stood out a mile! Not so, as I watched it come into land by the pool it then took about ten more minutes to re-locate it as it was motionless and so difficult to see.

5 Snipe

6 Snipe

Snipe