black tailed godwits

Black tailed godwits

Black tailed godwits

Black tailed godwits working the mud - Such a beautiful day just had to get out, but still having a bit of back trouble. I managed to drive right to the edge of the Exe Estuary at Topsham so all I had to do was stand in mud.

Thanks to Lou on the forum for the Id these were spotted on the river Humber yesterday. I have a newbie as I have not spotted them before.

Another shot from yesterdays trip. Caught these two having a right old tussle.Hard to squeeze them in with the converter on,but i'm pretty pleased with the result.

Not sure when this happens if any serious damage gets done,but if you look at the upper mandibil of the lower bird it is bent and in the throat of the second bird !! I have seen this behaviour many times, but not seen any left for dead.

Blackwit just about to land at the chosen point, on the River Stour on Saturday a local RSPB counter told me that the flock size was @1450 birds so just a few to photograph (@150 Knots as well)

I suppose it helps getting a little bit of lift...........

Such a nice sight today to see a large number of Godwits back and in summer colours, around 250 on the Stour at Mistley and numbers rising each day, if you want a place to see these birds extremely close, this is the spot

This one plus a few more obviously didn't fancy the trip to Iceland yet

2 4 the price of 1 trying out the new 500/4.5 sigma lens at last Opps just spotted the mistake..............

Black Tailed Godwits. Sketch

These two were at each other for about 15 mins. Pencil sketch.

I reckon that they must collide with each other?

All good things come to an end and when the tides too high they move on

More from the lovely sunset on Saturday night

as the sunset there was just enough light to catch the flocks of godwits heading for the high water roost

Attended an ABB event with the RSPB yesterday in Mistley and it was such a nice day that I stayed for the sunset, 1000+ Black Tailed Godwits, 100+ Avocets, red/ greenshanks, pintails, whooper swans, dunlin, golden plover, lapwings, curlew, cormorants, mute swans, canada geese, grey heron...

A pair of black tailed godwits during a courtship ritual !! A bit late at this time of the year I would have thought lol.

Black Tailed Godwits in thier lovely summer plumage

Well It was a glorious day yday for birding and photography and the Avocets were unusually quiet so it was up to the Black-tailed godwits to pick up the slack ;) . Thought the title was a good tongue-twister, bet you can't say it after a few B (: Woodchat Shrike pics to follow tomorrow.

First pics with my new Panasonic FZ7!

A number of Black Tailed Godwits in various states of colouring feeding before high tide at Mistley Essex

There were plenty of Godwits on the reservoir yesterday, some of which were a bit bad tempered and making sure others knew their place in the pecking order. I thought this shot captured the movement and mood quite well. I was going to crop out the bird on the right as it isn't very sharp, but...