The first time for a long while… a couple of hours with the camera.

Well in fact I had the best part of the day, so I spent it sitting on Bridlington beach waiting for the tide to push feeding waders in to me. The low tide was at about 11:30. The overcast sky gave a nice diffuse light, which otherwise would have been quite harsh at midday.

My targets we Turnstone, as I know them to be abundant year round and I was hoping to find some Sanderling. Initially I settled down near a roosting flock of black headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) and surveyed the beach.

Amongst them was an Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) picking up mussels washed up with the tide. Shooting towards, but not into, the sun allowed the almost silhouetted profile of the Oystercatcher , and a colourless impression of the Black-headed Gulls.

After my initial position was disrupted by a passing dog walker, I moved into the harbour wall which is host to a small mussel bed. There were a group of Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) feeding near the waters edge, about fifty meters away gradually moving back up towards me as the tide came in closer.

As I waited a redshank (Tringa totanus) wandered by.  These birds a usually quite skittish and won’t approach, however in this case this one walked right past about 5 meters away.

Still in the same position, by the harbour wall, I spotted a Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) steadily picking its way down the mussel bed towards me.  I have seen groups of these huddled together on stormy days in later summer.

Next to reveal its self to be feeding on the banks was a small group of Knot (Calidris canuta).

Initially I mistook this next species as another Knot, but as I watched it was obvious that it wasn’t feeding with the rest of the group and was considerably larger.  I didn’t identify it fully until I lookup it up… Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola).  Interestingly one of the identification points is the black armpit shown as the bird raises its wings.

The tide was approaching fast now and I was in danger of getting wet, so I retreated back onto the beach a little way from the waters line.  It wasn’t long before the tide had pushed up and brought the suft feeding birds close in.  These were a mixture of Turnstone, Sanderling (Calidris alba) and Dunlin (Calidris alpina) .

Overall a good day.  The light wasn’t amazing towards the late afternoon, but it was good to be able to photograph such an array of waders in such a short space of time

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.