Avian Jewels

This afternoon’s promised sunshine seems a distant hope as we start off on a walk around the reserve in Conwy. It’s not a good day health wise, discomfort and difficulty walking mean slow progress and at times I have to lean on G to walk. The skies are grey but birdsong lifts the mood, and gradually progress becomes easier so I find myself walking further than I’ve planned. 

I’ve almost given up finding any birds to photograph - those we do see are tiny dark specks high up in the trees or distant white dots on the water - but in the final hide I spot a single Lapwing and a pair of teal.  And at that moment, the promised break in clouds arrives, grey transmuting into blue as filtered sunlight brings out the lapwing’s iridescence; bright in full mating plumage, crest delightfully coiffured - an avian jewellery box of colours. 

And there’s the teal - another feast of colour. I just love these little ducks with their bandit eyes, intricate feather patterns, and those teasing flashes of green and orange hiding under wings. 

Far less exciting are the Canada geese, but in this light they too are beautiful, and in the distance, performing against the sunlit curtains of the reeds, struts a little egret.   

It’s a bit of a bird set today, I’m afraid. My main today’s the lapwing - though I’m tempted to exchange it for the teal glimpsed through the reeds. Then there’s the lapwing in flight - a brief hop along the bank. All rather more heavily cropped than I’d like (and I’ve no idea why I used such an unnecessarily high shutter speed) - but then there’s also the Canada goose who stood obligingly close! 

Many thanks for your generous responses to yesterday’s little stonechat - all very much appreciated. And I’m so sorry that I’m still behind with comments…..