This day was a marathon in all repects. Firstly, we were collected from the Lodge at 5.00am, taken to the hide and then collected at 18:45 - a long day in a hide.

The hide in question was the Egret and Stork Hide and it did exactly what it said on the tin - Egrets and Storks with a small supporting cast. We has just got settled and my real target bird for the day appeared in the early morning light - Black Stork.

The overall view from the hide can best be shown from this photo of a Spoonbill.

The pool often appeared to be covered by birds - it became difficult at times to isolate one bird for a decent photo - not a common problem in the UK.

Anyway, not too many species but plenty of opportunity to improve my photo library.

Great White Egret

Spoonbills fishing, preening and bathing.

A lone Buzzard dropped in, sat by the pool edge and just picked up it's lunch.

I ignored Grey Herons - they are easy to photograph in the UK - but this one caught my eye.

I have susequently found out via a friend that the bird is suffering from Oral fistula, where the tongue protrudes through the lower mandible - very odd. It can affect humans too!!!

So back to my target species - Black Stork. There was just one present at a time, probably not the same bird, but they call here for a short time on their northerly migration. Another week or so and they would have moved on. I took loads of photos early on and then the sun came out showing the real splendour of the species.

Keeping us amused by dropping it's catch.

and one catching a large fish, only to be persued by a Grey Heron.

At the end of the day, my camera recorded 3200 shots for the day, resulting in another marathon - editing and choosing which to keep.