...and I have been taking photos and not being totally idle.

The first week was pretty uneventful - I set up a new feeding station in my garden and sat in my hide for a couple of mornings but I will not bore you with photos of common garden birds - you can see them under Recent Additions if you are so inclined - page 10 onwards.

I have been away on a family holiday to northern Mallorca. I have this arrangement with my wife that I do not take photogear away on holiday - I spend enough time on that at home - but the hotel we booked was immediately opposite the S'Albufera Park National so I did manage to squeeze in my 7DMK2, 20-200 F2,8 lens and a couple of converters.

Unfortunately, the weather for the first part of the week was cloudy. I did go to the beach where there were some Audouin's Gulls but no shots were worth keeping - just a feeding Little Egret on the breakwater.

Thursday morning - bright sunshine so I was up early to visit the park - opens 9.00am but, rolex replica  despite the gate being closed, there were many birders/photographers already there. I promised to get back to the hotel for lunchtime so concentrated on the hides.

First hide was interesting with flying birds - and that just suited the 70-200 and 2x converter. Little Egret again

and Black-winged Stilt

Suddenly a flock of Glossy Ibis was there - distant and no-one in the hide saw them arrive - very odd.

An inter4esting hour or so and then onto the next hide but the sun was off to the right where most of the birds I wanted were flying - Cattle Egret

and Black-winged Stllts on nests

Not much else to get excited about but on the way back, a Little Bittern was showing very well, just off a stone bridge that crossed the canal.

and spent half-an-hour fishing in full view although into the sun.

This was the first time that I had photographed one so that was exciting for me.

Just off the next bridge, a specialist bird at S'Albufera, a Red-knobbed Coot was also replica watches feeding in full view.

and then my time was up. You could easily spend several days on this reserve but a morning is better than nothing.

That evening, I revisited the beach where the Audouin's Gulls were still there

And then the weather changed again because the next day, it was mostly heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Anyway, the hotel was fantastic and we had a great time overall - must go back.

Getting home, a Great Reed Warbler had been identified at Paxton Pits by my friend Stuart Elsom so Monday morning, I was there but it was distant and never really showed well. One shot worth keeping was all that I could manage.

This is a digiscoping job really - too distant for DSLR's - but this was also a first for me so even a record shot is worth keeping.

More images in the Recent Additions section.