A bright clear morning gave the thumbs up to the Woodpigs to get underway and how they came.
Swarm after swarm moved over on 2 levels, some low whilst others were very high with several flocks barely visible way out to the east of me. The move, which also consisted of several Fieldfare flocks, was at its hottest between 0830 hrs and 0930 hrs after which all went quiet.
I was only casual watching from work but estimated well over 8000 birds.
Work finished, shopping and dog grooming done then off to Fly Flatts on a bright afternoon with 40 % cloud cover , sunny intervals and a brisk W>5 and feeling strange not to get rained on.
The first surprise was 15 Black Headed gulls , some on the jetty, some on the water and others in the air. An unusual sight for this location which is not liked by gulls due to the peat shorelines.
Fully geared up today with tripod , so as not to be caught out like yesterday, I headed for the west bank on a low expectancy of seeing any Ring Ouzels but as soon as I crossed the overflow 2 male and 2 female were on the new cut grass beyond the feeding station.
With the camera quickly put on the sticks and a few test shots to get the exposure right I went down the banking to be less conspicuous and moved slowly along the track. Ring Ouzels are renown for being very flighty and the 2 males clocked me from 100 yds away and went over the fence beyond the long grass onto the moor with odd distant sightings as they moved about on the rocks. The 2 females stayed put feeding in the cut grass never moving too far from the area.
It was a case of keep edging on and stopping to get photos before edging on again before ending up still quite a distance away but near enough to get some half decent shots with Big Bertha at 600mm,
the tripod at its lowest point and me layed in the wet grass with 2 dogs sat on my back.
At one point one of the birds went just over the fence onto a stone with a Stonechat sat on the wire nearby.
Once again a cracking session at Fly Flatts.
All Ouzel picks below are female :-
BS