Days out with the camera have been rather sparse so far this month.

On 1st, I spent the day at Bourne, Lincolnshire, in Tom Robinson's pond hide. A few weeks ago, I has a 24 hour session but no Kingfishers turned up. This was to try to rectify that omission. The weather was dull and uninspiring but one has to make the best of it with relatively high ISO's to compensate.

The range of species is small and common - a family of Moorhens.

The obligatory Grey Heron that was fishing there for most of the day.

and a Little Egret that was fishing on-and-off, when the Heron would allow it.

But Kingfishers were the main target, even though I have loads of photos of the species. The usual one with a catch

and one of several successful attempts to get one rising from the water.

Just a snapshot of the selection of the photos taken.

On Friday 3rd, I saw reports of a juvenile Black Tern at Dernford Reservoir, just south of Cambridge. I was not able to get there until early afternoon - high cloud so not ideal for the expected flight shots. I did not even take my tripod, assuming that only flight shots would be possible - a mistake.

As I got to the reservoir, the Tern was flying around but landed on a small patch of reeds just out from where I was standing. I needed the 2x converter for the distance but - no tripod so hand held - far from ideal.

Anyway, it was soon seen off by a Coot so flight shots became the order of the day.

More photos from both days in the Recent Additions page.