grey heron ardea cinerea

Lapwings seem to manage to drive off most unwelcome guests including those as large as Grey herons. The only time I can recall seeing a pair of Lapwings fail utterly was with a pair of Common cranes who completely ignored the frantic birds.

Sweden's national day today but we're at home and it's pouring with rain. We'll try to find a quiet birding spot tomorrow as the forecast looks great. This heron took off as I approached but instead of flying away, it flew towards me and came very close.

We've had some sunshine this week too so I'm posting 2 new pictures and one old one again today. This is the old one, from February 2015 I came across a flock of Waxwings today but I've only begun to process these pictures.

This is a previously unposted and but reprocessed picture from 2013. I'm posting today because I was helping to organize a Burns supper yesterday.

No so many winter images left now and I've processed all the pictures from our trip to the south of Sweden at Easter.

The snow's still around and we've had a lot of sunshine so I've taken quite a lot of winter pictures.

Got this on the way back to the car after photographing the herons. We still have snow but not enough to cause any problems.

A bit of Saturday fun. Had some computer problems but I'll definitely try to visit BirdForum more often.

Still lots to do at work but I'm starting to enjoy it again. I ran out of pictures I wanted to post but I've got quite a few now so I'll try to visit Bird Forum more often.

A couple of winter close-ups today and then the first from our Easter trip next time.

Looks a bit like it's wearing a fur coat.

Not sure what's going on here but it makes me smile.

Missed my old 100-400 mm lens as I found the 400 mm lens took me too close too the Herons. But it was fine for this sort of close-up portrait.

The lake was frozen but there was a little open water near the edge.

From the height of the tree the Grey Heron had nothing to fear of so I could easily take the photo.

Very common but always so elegant.

It hasn't felt much like spring during the weekend. We've had snow and sleet and a cold wind has blown. Hope it gets warmer in time for our Easter trip.

Not much snow left now.

Not sure why they were mostly facing in the same direction.