Daily Archives: October 31, 2013

Dyserth Dippers

One of my favourite birds is the Dipper. I have never had much luck with them with the camera though. They live on streams which are often overshadowed by trees or hills.

Purely by chance today I happened to be driving around with my mum and having visited the usual haunts I decided to explore a bit, taking in Dyserth – a place I’d driven through but never set foot in.

One of the “star” attractions there is the waterfall and we pulled up to have a look. The moment I saw the stream I thought “Dippers” and about 3 seconds after that one flew past us.

Camera duly grabbed, a couple of minutes and I had spotted two Dippers, together. As always, there was a bit of a photographic challenge but managed a couple of half-decent pics.

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The quest for even better Dipper photos continues…….

 

Conwy RSPB – Back on the Rails

After spending over an hour on my knees in wet sand yesterday I needed something more sedate today. A hour or two sat on my bum in Conwy RSPB’s Benarth hide would fit the bill nicely.

With the tide in I was expecting to see lots of waders on the reserve but apart from a few Lapwings I saw none. A bit of a mystery there. What there was plenty of was ducks. Teal were everywhere but also there were Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveller, Wigeon and Pintail. I never get bored with looking at the colours on a male Teal.IMG_7358

With no waders around I set my hopes on seeing a Water Rail in the reed-edged inlet next to the hide. After a hour and a half, as I was just about to call it a day, I heard a scuffling noise just below the hide window. I peered out just in time to see the flash of the white backside of a Rail just disappearing into the reeds right by me. The bird must have been within 6 feet of me and I didn’t know! Luckily, a minute later it emerged from the reeds in the perfect spot for me to rattle off a few shots before it disappeared again.
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After that I felt that my mission was accomplished and lunch time loomed anyway. Off home a happy man, again….

As always, click on a pic to see the full-sized image.

(Some other shots from the morning)
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