Sunday, 18 September 2016

Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 13 18-Sept-2016


Yes I know, it's been a terribly long time since I've done an update.
Life has gotten in the way and if I'm honest, a death of decent sightings on previous trips have put me off writing about them.

I'm back though, and massively behind Martin, but today was a decent little day, and it's given me the bug again, so I'll try and get more solid updates going forward.

When I got to the actual lakes there were a large group of people, around 20 or so who must have stumbled onto the lake as there were no cars in the car park to support them. They were a pain in the ass, talking loudly, scaring stuff and paying no heed to other people. As I was taking photos at one point a stone made a huge splash in front of me scattering the birds I was taking images of and causing me to say some harsh but deserved words to the gentleman that threw it.


It was a fair way away, but crops quite well.

I hung back, leaving them to pick berries and go about their annoying ways and soon found some nearby grebes again.

I started walking along the back of the second lake but the midges were swarming like anything, getting in my mouth and generally being bothersome, so I gave up and instead made my way to the small pathway that separates the two lakes.


Coots are always plentiful at Longham.

As I reached the final corner of lake two I was attracted by a rustling in the reeds by me. Before long, a small brown bird flew off and hung around some reeds about 20 feet from me. I tried phishing and eventually it came forward, enough for me to see it was a Sedge Warbler, my first for the year at Longham. Not a rare bird, but a lovely looking one all the same.


Not the best shot as he was in reeds and it's handheld at 600mm, but not bad either.
I wasn't on patch long, roughly an hour and there wasn't much else of note, but I did enjoy myself. I'm still a long way behind Martin, but with migration period upon us, there's a chance I might be able to close the gap between us.









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