Pintail Ducks at Wicken Fen

I enjoyed a longer than usual visit to West Mere Hide this morning and saw Pintail Duck which I hadn't seen there before.   An attractive bird.   Just two males and a female on this occasion.   Perhaps they will breed there this year...........

Mute Swan Preening

The flexibility of this Swan's neck and the positions it adopted were extraordinary.   Presumably this was to preen/scratch its head rather than scratch the feathers on its back.   After all that backward neck bending, it folded its head into its chest!

Greeting Cards

A bit pushed to find something to post these days so decided to include some Greeting Cards I've recently had printed.   It isn't like me to move so far away from original images but I have been having fun with filters and in particular Twirl.   Maybe someone out there will be the recipient of one of these cards one day!

Trees viewed from the Great Ouse

The first two images are in colour and the last one monochrome.   They are typical of trees to be found in the Fens on cold winter mornings and set the scene.   I keep returning to the Lazy Otter just in case I get some better images of Owls or Harriers......

Frosted Vegetation

A really hard frost last night and morning photographs to confirm it!   Let's hope these plants, which must have been lulled into thinking winter was over, will maintain their strength through this cold weather.

Short-eared Owl and Male Hen Harrier - Lazy Otter

What a surprise - not only another sighting of a Short-eared Owl (perhaps the same bird) but a Male Hen Harrier flew south this morning across the Great Ouse!   On morning dog walks I'm an opportunist in that I hand hold the camera and hope to get a good enough image!

Research Park Skies

The pastel colours of the sky and clouds this morning were special.   It had been the coldest night of this winter so far and there was a hard frost.   The fourth image is a large 'flock' of Gulls which rose up from the lagoon near the hide.   No way of knowing what had unsettled them.

Cormorant

This isn't a special image and I can't work out why I like it.   I guess I like the simplicity of the composition - a telegraph pole, wires and a Cormorant - and it's a bit ludicrous too.

Lazy Otter - landscapes

The light was interesting yesterday morning and looked as though it might threaten a precipitation.   Some might say there is too much 'emptiness' between the cloud and land to make a balanced composition.   I love the expansiveness of the scenes.

Lazy Otter - Cygnet Landing

I returned to the Lazy Otter yesterday morning in the hope of seeing an Owl again - but nothing.   Instead a Cygnet landed close by.   I wonder when a Cygnet becomes a Swan.   This Cygnet is at least as large as a Swan but not all the feathers are yet white.