After Grafham Water last Thursday, I decided to spenf the afternoon at the Wildlfe and Wetlands Trust  reserve at Welney, just over the county border in Norfolk. I have not visited there for a while and the winter swans were arriving, especially one or two Bewick Swans, a species that I have not photographed for many years.

When all of the Whooper Swans have arrived, the Bewicks tend to get pushed too far away on the reserve so it was with sone hope, and a report from the day before, that there were some Bewicks in front of the observation hide. True to form, only Whoopers were there with several new arrivals during the afternoon so it was a case of trying to get some different shots other  than the usual 'swan sitting on water' and 'swan flying by'.

Limited success so most of the images were binned but I retained one or two. the first of a new arrival coming in

then starting to bathe

and really enjoying the experience after a long flight

before closing with a good wing flap

One other shot I thought worth keeping was of some very noisy Greylag Geese (are there any other kind?) coming in to roost.

The reserve closes at 5.00pm which, until the clocks change, is just the time when more birds arrive from feeding in the nearby fields.

Surprisingly, there were few ducks, mainly Mallard so there is still a lot of activity to come on this reserve in the next few weeks.