Tuesday 17 October 2017

Oct 17th Cley

Pink-footed Geese
Back at Cley again, this time with my Aunt Barbara. It was bright and sunny, though a bit blustery. Skeins of pink-footed geese were continuously flying over the reserve, a welcoming sight and a sign that winter is just around the corner. Their 'pink wink wink' calls carry to my ears, only just piercing through the howls of the wind. Out on the pools, some of these geese were snoozing together on a few of the islands in a large gaggle. Amongst them was something special and it had everyone inside the central hide get a bit excited and pointing every kind of lens that you can think of that's related to bird watching.
Tundra Bean Goose
It was an imposter amongst the 'pinkies' with orange legs instead of pink ones. This was a tundra bean goose, a scarce race of bean goose that was recently made a separate species. After being pointed out the bird's whereabouts, it was easy enough to locate it again due to those bright orange legs. However, confusion ensued once the goose sat down for a snooze with it's orange bill hidden under it's wing. A few visitors were finding it hard to spot it for themselves while it was standing up, now it was a much trickier task with the bird asleep alongside it's similar looking cousins. Then, it got worse for those that were still searching for it as a marsh harrier chased the geese and everything else on the pools up into the air and, for the geese, fly away and out of sight!



Marsh Harrier
As this was my first full outing with my new bridge camera, it was a great opportunity to test out it's range and how quick it is to focus. It turned out to be very similar to my previous camera, though some of the buttons were in a slightly different place and will probably take some time to getting used to. I have one gripe though, the zoom range was slightly lacking a bit, but not by much. There were plenty of birds to test the camera out today, which consists of redshanks, ruff, lapwings, black-tailed godwits, little stints, ringed plover, snipe, little egrets, wigeon, teal shovelers, shelducks and a marsh harrier. I also saw curlews, cormorants, dunlins and gannets, but they proved too distant for my camera to focus on. It may not have the same reach as the old one, but I think I'm going to love this new camera!
Redshank
Ruff
Teal
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Little Egret
Lapwing
Wigeon
Wigeon and Little Stint
Black-tailed Godwit and Teal
Ringed Plover and Pink-footed Geese
Wigeon scared up by a Marsh Harrier
Shelduck
Shoveler
Snipe
Mating Common Darters



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