23 April 2011 - Frampton Marsh part 2
My luck with the weather appears to be changing - a strange yellow ball keeps appearing in the sky and the sky itself is an unusual blue colour. I had planned a second trip to Frampton Marsh with a hope that it might be more productive than the first. I set off at around 5am and arrived an hour later - it was a glorious morning with the reserve bathed in golden light.
The reserve was alive with the sound of bird song, particularly Sedge Warblers and Corn Buntings. I took the opportunity to approach a Corn Bunting against the light. Keeping the bird fairly small in the frame I photographed it on some thistle heads, putting everything into silhouette.
Not a bad start to the day!
At around 8am I bumped into a fellow photographer called Steve. He kindly told me about some Water Voles he had seen the night before (12 in total). They were apparently very tame and could even be called closer. He took me to the end of a ditch where he thought they would be. True to his word, he made a high pitched squeeking noise and a Water Vole came across the ditch and posed in the sunlight - remarkable!
Thanks very much to Steve for his help - my first ever Water Vole images!
To comment on these images or for more Water Vole images please click here.
Having already bagged an early morning shot of a Corn Bunting I wanted to see if I could get a closer image. I have had some success with photographing Corn Buntings at Frampton (see link below) but I hadn't bagged the shot I really wanted - a close up image of a bird singing, with a nice clean background.
I was pleased to find the Corn Buntings just as confiding as last year. With a careful, slow approach I managed to get quite close and rattle off a range of images I was quite pleased with. The bunting seemed totally unbothered by my presence!
For more images of Corn Buntings, both from this visit and previous visits to Frampton, please click here.
Another species I wanted to capture was the Northern Wheatear - again I was in luck - with patience you could see that the Wheatears had favourite posts, some of which were alongside the path. On one occasion a Corn Bunting flew from a post, only to be immediately replaced by a Wheatear!
For more images of Northern Wheatear please click here
For the last hour or so of my trip, I paid a visit to the Reedbed Hide. It was a perfectly still day and the water was like glass, providing a lovely mirror effect for any birds that swam by. One such bird was the Great Crested Grebe. I was pleased to get some images of this bird in better light than I had experienced at Rutland Water!
To comment on these images or for more Grebe photos please click here.
Finally, on the way back to the car I managed a quick shot of the elusive Sedge Warbler, which I had heard around the reserve singing all morning.
All in all a very enjoyable morning!