Yesterday I had moaned about the dull and dreary weather so when the day dawned today the sunshine seemed brighter and even more bright than normal. Perhaps the contrasting weather here in the UK is what makes it such a nice place to live, you never get fed up with the weather, it's so changeable. I couldn't wait to get out with my new Pentax K3 camera in the bright light, I wanted to get some in-flight shots. This new camera seems to be easier to use for this kind of photography. After a brief visit to the marsh where, apart from 3 birders telling me of a distant Short -eared Owl and a nearby hidden but "squealing" Water Rail, (I've heard this bird several times recently), there wasn't a lot going on. I decided to go to Bowling Green Marsh where a Long-tailed Duck female has been reported for several days. This is a bird I haven't photographed before and it will be good to put a picture on my Devon Bird Gallery ( now up to 184 Devon species). I photographed the ducks and Godwits from the comfort of the hide and other birders told me that the Long-tailed duck was over the far side in the pool but very distant. A small group of Godwits were very close...... here's a picture of one.....
……….. I continued to focus on this bird with my head down and one eye peering through the view finder for several minutes, perhaps even 10. I was waiting for it to take flight. Eventually it did and afterwards I looked up, to be told by the other birders that the Long-tailed Duck had been in the channel just in front of us and they all thought that's what I was photographing….. very disappointing. Never mind though, hopefully I will get another chance tomorrow. It was about this time that I was able to photograph the Widgeon above, one of my best ever flight shots, I just love my new Pentax K3.
The beak of this bird looks as thoughit's been painted, especially the black tip. Hope you agree that they are such lovely birds. Their scientefic name is interesting Anas penelope, well the first part is easy, Anas is a family of ducks which includes Mallard and Shoveler but the second part is the same as the Greekk mythological charachter who was married to Odysseus and I have done a bit of research and see that the name Penelope is associated with marital faithfullness. Well thats interesting because you often see them moving around in true pairs but research seems to indicate that they do not mate for life so who knows how they got such an attractive name.
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