... and who blinked first after the second one?

Hopefully you had a long lens on the camera!

Steve

It looks as startled as I was when I first saw it !

Excellent (as usual :wink.

Steve

It won't be long. From the patches of ice on the water it's clear they were undergoing training for a push north .

And for the avoidance of doubt, the title of the thread is correct, the first line of the text is wrong - they really are great whites, not greys (obvious from the photos of course). How many times did I check and recheck and still miss a crucial mistake ... .

Steve

The great grey egret is a bit of a rarity in the UK, it doesn't even appear in the 'Out Of The Ordinary' section of my 'Collins Complete Guide To British Birds: A Photographic Guide To Every Common Species' (2004 edition). Similar to the now common little egret but much bigger - about the size of a grey heron - it's impressive, magnificent and hard to ignore. According to the RSPB, numbers are increasing with an over-wintering population of 72 birds, mostly in south east England and East Anglia. However, some birds have taken a liking to the West Country, in particular RSPB Ham Wall and the adjacent Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve in Somerset. Here are photos of a few of them (unless the same bird was shadowing my friend and I as we spent several hours wandering round both reserves :shock.

All with K3 + DA300mm + 1.4TC (first) or F 1.7x adapter (all others).

Thoughts. comments etc. welcome as usual.

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Steve

Superb, and quite possibly all the better for having the fog. Impossible to pick a favourite, but as a fan of footpaths and little bridges I must congratulate you on the last one - to infinity and beyond .

It would be interesting to take a matching set without fog and put them side by side. Something for warmer weather .

Steve

Thanks, that's good to hear. I was hoping to try it with birds in flight, but the birds wouldn't cooperate. Too cold. They were all hunkered down, conserving energy. Only humans were daft enough to wander around getting colder and colder. Thank goodness the coffee wagon was still open at the end of the day .

Steve

RSPB nature reserves aren't just for photographing birds. I couldn't resist this bulrush.

Taken with K3 + DA300mm + F 1.7x Adapter, hand held atop a monopod. It was the first outing for the new-to-me adapter. Results seem just as good as with the 1.4TC. Different technique needed, of course, but that's all part of the rich variety and challenges of photographic life .




Steve

An interesting set. Just checked my photos from a trip to Stoke Bruerne a few months ago, there's a lot of similarity! 'Chimneys' stands out for me, thanks to that reflection and spot-on composition. And 'Lock gates' beats my attempts at the same thing - well done .

Steve

And my vote goes to ... the third. Interesting how the focus of attention changes through the sequence (or at least it does to me). It's the big hill in the first one, the castle in the second and the white building with a spire (church?) in the third. Don't know why it changes but it does.

I wish there was a view like that from my local Chinese takeaway or fish 'n chip shop...

Steve

Ah ... Allium, not Lilium. Now I recognise it. Mine lose the stars, only the bit in the middle is left.

Steve