Another Grey Day

My birthday was last weekend! 16. wow. That heralds an age of small CC motorised vehicles, army joining and apparrently I can now legally get married! However, in real world terms all this has done is taken my eligibility for childs-fare public transport away, which is a shame. Still, a nice treat in these shots of a lovely Grey Wagtail on the River Tame in east Manchester. The bird did sit on my head briefly, but did see sense and go onto the rocks near me and my now one-year-old sigma 120-400mm...!



This is a proper manc wagtail, sitting on a broken bumper midstream...!

and in for the best shots of the day...?

So goodbye stupidly cheap wanderings up to Leighton Moss for under a tenner, goodbye pointless and prolonged wanderings in North Wales and hello to a very light birding schedule, for alas the exam season is upon me and I can do little but grit my teeth and get down to it! Still, after that things are lookin' up. Briefly.

A Grey Day

This weekend I set my mind to a task, one that'll probably take me through til easter. The birds of fast-flowing waterways are re-knowned for their early breeding, and I set myself the challenge of watching creatures on my local river, the River Tame. This is in Tameside, Manchester, and flows from the peaks to form a confluence with the goyt before the long flow down to the sea. It is already a sizable stream where I meet it, and from an island I survey the birds on it. They are very often hard to spot in the tumbling water, but the local Grey Wagtail pair showed reasonably well, especially in the sunlight as it glinted off the crests of waves...

But they always try to get closer, don't they?

Rock climbing, grey wag style...!

... little contact call to his mate, i'm a threat it seeems...

Do Knock Mr Dunnock

Of late I have had some rather intimate encounters involving some dunnocks that have become used to my presence at the feeder. The birds are a pair, and I look forward to watching them nesting in the coming weeks!

Not more Frogs...!

Just a couple more from my festival of the frog that is currently occurring in my back garden! Its occupying me nicely every evening for an hour or so, very satisfying shooting! There are now a minimum of 50 individuals, and the colour differences between them is striking...

But alas they will soon go, so long til next year then!