I knew it!

As I feared the crake had disappeared by the weekend, possibly the result of some prolonged tractor work nearby - the conspiracy theorists were out in force on that one!
I did get some reasonable views of snipe on the Saturday, but again the light made getting a completely sharp picture quite tricky. Not to mention the reeds in the way.
On the whole I'm delighted with the new camera kit. Last weekend I stuck up a 'hide' in the garden and snapped a few regulars, including a few real in-your-face shots .......
I'll have to watch that tendency to nip off the tails though!

Spotted Crake

You know how things can niggle. They just nag away in the background, leaving you feeling unsettled, and there comes a point where you have to decide whether you are going to do something about them or not.

In the last post I mentioned the spotted crake. About an hour away. The website reports kept saying 'it's still there' and the pictures proved it. But the time to see it is early morning or late evening. And it niggled and nagged. What if it was gone by the weekend? What if it was raining at the weekend?

So I gave in. Set the alarm for 4.30 am. Struggle to get up, but I made it to the reserve car park by 6.20, relieved I found the place as I had never been before - thank god for the internet. Another 15-20 minute walk to the hide, 5 minutes getting set up. Nothing to see, come on, come on - I haven't got all day you know.

And then .........................

OK the light wasn't great, and it would insist on keeping bits of grass in the way, but my new camera and lens combo coped, even keeping the focus sharp enough with a very shallow depth of field.

And I even made it into work on time.