Birds a-Plenty

Yesterday I was lucky enough to see the cormorants not just barrelling up the river at top speed and diving, but one of them perched on some debris in the river. I was having a hiccup with my lens. I didn't realise that it had accidentally got switched to manual focus only on the lens, but I knew it wasn't auto-focussing so I was doing my best with manual. Hard with glasses - I can see why people invest in the special dioptre eyecups. My first attempts with the grey wagtails (been seeing them a lot these last few weeks) aren't really very good, but a couple of the cormorant ones certainly came out OK. What a relief to find that somehow the switch had got pushed on in my bag and that the lens didn't need an expensive repair.

In the silhouetted image where I was looking up the river into the sun you can really see how hooked his beak is. At first I thought there was an annoying twig sticking up behind him till I realised it was just beak. It's almost hooked.

Three snatched shots from this morning. The first two are a blackcap, which I've never seen on the feeder before. I had to take the pictures through both back doors in case it flew off, so they're a bit grainy. I'll be keeping an extra-watchful eye out for the next while.

As it was a beautiful sunny morning I paid a quick visit to Farmleigh before going to pick up a reserved book at the library. I was just walking back to the car when I saw some movement in a cherry tree by the lake. I only had time to grab one quick shot before someone else came crunching along the gravel nearer the tree and the little bluetit was gone.

 

There were even some daffodils out already too, and some wood anemones which I am pretty sure weren't out last week.