Birds in Flight

An early morning visit to Pagham. I ended up on the west side but I had intended to go to the North Wall, I just took the wrong turn at Chichester, must have been half asleep! Having invested in a book on nature photography and having half soaked up some of the excellent tips on photographing Birds in Flight (BiF)  I decide to have a practice. I have to say that it was really nice to be out in the early morning, the post dawn light was very diffused with a real orange hue. Even better there were plenty of birds about.  However, proceedings were interupted by a different bird in flight, the Sussex Air Ambulance came swooping over the harbour and landed pretty quickly somewhere near the Crab and Lobster.  Eventually things settled down and I managed a shot of an obliging Kestrel, of course the Little Egrets were everywhere and were happy to give fly bys. As the tide peaked and started to ebb the Redshanks and Curlews became more active and as always the Wigeon were moving rapidly about.





 Sussex Air Ambulance on an early morning run

Kestrel in the early morning light

Similarly, a Little Egret

Kestrel broadside




Oh so close to being a good shot - by he was quick!




Redshank

Black-tailed Godwit

Leucistic Curlew roosting with others, it has been around for while.

A large party of birders arrived with much noise, don't think they would have seen many birds today, far too noisy for self respecting waders and wildfowl.  One of the reasons that I seldom venture forth on a Sunday. So I drew stumps and went home for lunch.

I was surprised by a Kingfisher, I managed six shots but none of them were in focus, more practice is needed.  As I neared the Church Norton end I spotted the leucistic Curlew at roost with others, shame he didn't want a quick go round the harbour. Over the visitor centre two Buzzards were active but neither ventured close enough for a shot.