STEVE ASHTON'S WILDLIFE GALLERY

August 2008

Dull and dreary at Grove Ferry this morning.

A dull and damp morning, as I arrived at the Turf Field hide on the Grove Ferry reserve at 8.30 this morning. I had arranged to meet Mike Gould, as I am experiencing auto focusing problems with my camera, and after swapping lenses with Mike, thus eliminating lens trouble, it seems that my camera has to be returned to Canon for an examination. So a bank holiday weekend, raining with a gale force wind, a broken camera, means that it will probably be upwards from now, as I am on the bottom rung surely.
Any way, a pleasant surprise was seeing the reeds have been cut on the island in front of the hide, opening up views to the left hand side and also to the rear of the Tern raft, which immediately allowed me to view a Spotted Redshank, feeding in amongst several Mallard, a Wader that is not frequently seen from this hide. 2 Green Sandpipers landed on the Island, but departed a few minutes later, and the Spotted Redshank departed about 5 minutes after I arrived, calling as it flew off towards the ramp. 3 Black-tailed Godwits circled the pool, coming in to land, but then thought better of it, flying back out over the hide as we watched There were several Pochard on the pool, and singles of Little Egret and Grey Heron were observed. A Kestrel was the only raptor seen throughout our stay, and Martyn Wilson joined us for the last half of an hour, all three of us leaving about 11.30 a.m. 3 Dunlin, a Common Snipe, and 3 Black-tail Godwits (probably the 3 seen earlier from the hide) were seen flying, as the birds on the main pool from the viewing ramp were spooked by something as we walked out. Has anybody got a Canon camera body for sale ? Normal service will be resumed as soon as I have a Camera ,or my one is repaired.