Another trip to the lakes

On a beautiful sunny morning I went for a walk with my eldest son to Anton Lakes. My son has recently purchased a super-duper long lens and was wanting to try it out by pointing it at some birds.


I felt quite inferior with my much smaller lens but am quite pleased with some of the results I got. 

This robin sat and posed for me beautifully

Cormorants sat on the highest branches

A hybrid, mostly mallard but think he might have a bit of shoveller duck in him

Mallard (see the difference to the one above)

One of the many mute swans that frequent the lake

A goosander (managed to get better photos than the ones I took the other day)

And again, you can see his colours better on this one

So elegant, I love it when swans glide through the water like this

I love the water glistening on this swan's neck and beak

Another mallard  - what a stunning colour they are when the sun shines on them!

And last but not least a beautiful tufted duck

Let's hope this sunny weather continues. It makes so much difference when taking photos and we have had more than enough grey murky days recently.

Winter has arrived at last!

Well, we are at last experiencing some wintry weather but hopefully it will not spoil these daffodils which have been out on our local recreation ground since Christmas.

Both DH and I have had colds since just before the New Year but decided that we needed to get out and blow the cobwebs away so we went for a short walk today to Anton Lakes, a local nature reserve. I have to say it was really quite chilly with an icy wind blowing and for the first time this winter I really should have put some gloves on but it was still good to get some fresh air in our lungs.


We did manage to see a Goosander duck which is quite rare in these parts and a Kingfisher, unfortunately the photos I took of these birds didn't turn out particularly well as the Goosander was some way from us on the other side of the lake and the light wasn't good when we spotted the Kingfisher. It is always a pleasure to see Kingfishers as we don't see them very often, although we have seen a couple since Christmas, one on Boxing Day as we took a walk by the river in Kingsclere and now again today.


We also saw an elusive Water Rail but he didn't hang around to have his photograph taken and took to skulking in the bushes and weeds by the side of the river!

Goosander

Love the reflections of the reeds in this little pond

A view looking back to the main lake

Lots of hungry waterfowl, unfortunately we didn't take any food to give them so once they realised we weren't going to feed them they swan off

A majestic Mute Swan

This photo shows how choppy the water on the lake was today

And the stunning Kingfisher (not a fantastic photo but at least you can see what it is)

We are so lucky that we have two nature reserves close by where we can enjoy spotting wildlife and occasionally see something a bit more unusual.


Until next time ....