Waterfowl at Martinmere

[alanhill]

Martinmere is a reserve owned by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the middle of Lancashire. It has three parts - a collection of captive (pinioned) waterfowl, a lake surrounded by hides with a few captive birds which attract wild birds (assisted by a handout of grain at 3 pm each day ;)) and a large area of pools and rough meadows where wild birds can feed naturally and roost without disturbance.
I spent most of the day there two weeks ago. These shots show a pintail drake, a whooper swan and a teal drake on the lake - easy shots of wild birds from the main hide.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Martinmere/Martinmere01a027.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Martinmere/Martinmere01a034.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Martinmere/Martinmere01a059.jpg

This part of Lancashire has large numbers of pink-footed geese in winter, with some others too. These are barnacle geese, which usually winter in Scotland.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Martinmere/Martinmere01a192.jpg

If you look carefully, you may spot the odd bird out in this skein.
It is a red-breasted goose, a very rare vagrant from the Black Sea. Here is a full crop from the original file, which is surprisingly clear IMHO.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Martinmere/Martinmere01a192crop.jpg

Finally a very common bird (in the Arctic) - but a very rare and delicate one in captivity - a drake long-tailed duck in one of the pens. I think I prefer the shot with the dark background - but I may change my mind.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Martinmere/Martinmere01b026.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/Martinmere/Martinmere01b027.jpg

Alan

[squidfish]

Good job Alan, especially spotting the Red breasted goose amongst the flock!!!! I love that potrait of the long-tailed duck and my preference is for the dark background.

Cheers

Rich

[alanhill]

I can't really claim much credit for the red-breast. Everyone in the hide was trying to spot it when it was feeding on the ground with the barnacles - you know the sort of thing "It's got its head up now .... in line with the third bush to the left of the gate ... just between two barnacles" "I can't see it!" "It's put its head down ... I've lost it now" and so on.
When the geese flew, I was concentrating on waiting for the skein to form a photogenic shape, getting it in the right part of the frame, waiting until the light caught their undersides and overexposing a little to get some detail in the birds. I wasn't really looking at the geese at all - I knew they weren't pinkfeet, but it was only when I picked up my binoculars to scan the ground that I realised that the barnacles were gone. I didn't know that I had caught the redbreast until I downloaded the photos and viewed them on my monitor :redface:

Alan