I have been busy during the past couple of weeks so this blog will be a catch-up.

First trip out was to Grafham Water on 7th October. A near summer plumaged Great Northern Diver had been reported off the dam and that was worth going for. Walking up the dam early morning (well 8.30 which is early for me), first sighting was a Wheatear - rather late for one of those migrants.

and onm the outflow, a Yellow-legged Gull showed nicely.

Al;ways nice to get one of those in good light.

The subject of my visit showed briefly

and disappeared very quickly to surface well over 100 metres away.

With the Diver staying out on the reservoir, the only other bird of interest was a Grey Wagtail.

Beautiful bird but nothing else turned up. A mixed day but at least I got what I went for.

My next trip out was 14th October, really to relieve Covid boredom. I went to Welney WT, not expecting much. On arrival in the observatory hide, I was surprised to see the washes full and not much in front of the hide. I had only intended to spend the morning there but needs must so I experimented with the 500 lens on the 1DX MK2 camera with a 2x converter to see how effective the combo was on flight shots. Nice and sunny so plenty of light.

First was the usual Mallards

then a nice close drake Teal

drake Wigeon.

and a rather distant female Pintail.

I must confess I was pleasantly surprised.

The next day, a friend and I had arrnged to travel to Bradgate Park, Leicestershire to try to photograph the deer rut. To be honest, it was a rather disappointing day. The usual herds of deer were not to be found. I met Danny Green there on one of his trips. He was a co-leader on the trip I took to Iceland three years ago and lives nearby. Apparently with the Covid restrictions, the park has many more visitors that usual so the deer are staying in the Sanctuary, well away from the hoards of people..

We found a couple of male Fallow Deer doing - well - not much!!!

and then after a lengthy walk to the far side of the park, we found a small group of Red Deer doing - well not very much.

The stag appeared from among the bracken.

He was continually testing the air to see if one of his four females had come into season. He had as much luck as we had.

Later on, another small group approached, The two stags seemed to be evenly matched, looked each other up and down from a distance and decided not to bother.

On the long walk back to the car, we came across a couple of Fallow Deer stags really having a go. Light not ideal but at least some action.

It was a couple of years since we last visited Bradgate Park and had a really good day. This day was certainly disappointing.