It’s that time of year again….

Gulls become very aggressive when they are protecting their chicks.  This one is warning that I’m too close.  The next stage would have been spraying me with guano and then finally dive bombing me with it’s beak.  Needless to say I didn’t wait around for the rest of the show!

A winter feeding station is a great way to to fit a couple of hours of photography into a busy life.  I set my feeders up in late October in front of a small hide made out of old pallets and scraps of wood.  Arranged a few perches and scattered feed around.  Within a couple of weeks the feed had started to disappear as the birds became more familiar with the station.  This particular shot was arranged by attracting the finch using niger seed and waiting for a nice calm sunny morning.

Knot are usually associated with the huge wheeling flocks that gather in winter to roost and feed on the UK’s estuaries.  The birds are generally nervous and are not easily approached, but with a little patience and good positioning they will tolerate you as they approach whilst feeding.  This image was taken from behind a rock where a number of birds were being pushed towards me by the incoming tide.

For me, the call of the Curlew is a quintessential part of wildlife watching on British estuaries.  You may not see the birds, but the melancholy whistle - as described by my bird book - travels far and lets you know they are there.  Unfortunately this image does not do this emotive bird justice.  The main problem with the image is the forth bird, the one preening , which unsettles the composition.  I’m not sure why three birds in the frame work better than four, but in this case I think it’s definitely so.