Wednesday 11 December 2013

Mist and Frost

I arrived at the reserve this morning to receding mist, a hard frost and blue skies and sunshine, all combining to make quite a stunning morning.
This is only a brief post in order to show the geese there this morning, sitting in the frost marsh. These photos were only taken with my bog-standard Fuji so don't expect photographer speak about ISO's and could do better's, although the birds lets me get to almost 100yds of them, these are the best my camera does. I should also add that the birds were still there undisturbed when I moved away.
Below you can see the frosty scene that met me as I arrived.



The geese were all together as one flock and comprised c.130 Greylags and 72 White-fronts. Below are all Greylags.


Here you can see a couple of Greylags and the rest Whitefronts, showing the difference in size.


These two photos are all Whitefronts, they are surprisingly tame for wild birds.



Mixed birds


All Greylags


4 comments:

  1. Great stuff Derek, even with your bog standard Fuji as you put it. Will get out there one day. Presumably at the Harty end of the reserve rather than Shellness ?

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  2. Mike, if you're referring to the geese, they tend to be around the area viewed from the Sea wall Hide. If you're referring to parking, Shellness end is best because not only can you walk to the hide from there but you're also handy for the high tide wader roost at the Point.

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  3. Gorgeous day. No. 4 from the top, a white bird among the geese? I think of the times I've seen numerous snow geese in winter flocks, then I take a deep breath and have to convince myself I'm seeing more snow geese every day than anyone else sees in a lifetime. They're usually Whooper or Bewick's Swans, regular winter visitors to our SW Swedish coast. Has one of them made its way across to you?

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  4. There's a couple in picture no. 3 as well.

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