A bit late uploading these .. and the videos but .. that is because of my memory issues and I have two cameras, or had that day, to deal with.
I forgot about this non-professional camera!
Anyhoo .. we went out on a warm but very windy day .. which blew me about while I was filming with the zoom at full .. win .. chat! Lol.
This was on Walthamstow Wetlands .. or opposite Walthamstow Wetlands .. not sure if it is all the same place. Another place is called The Paddocks .. no .. just don't! It is on Ferry Lane in Walthamstow not far from Tottenham Hale.
While out we saw Shelducks, Oystercatchers and some Alder Flies, the latter I do not ever recall seeing before that day. Caddis Flies, yes. Alder Flies not so sure ..
I title it that because watching the Red Crested Pochards put me in mind of a load of soldiers on parade. In one video below the males are all bobbing their beaks in what must be some kind of mating courtship .. thing?
I was not expecting to see these and annoyingly and due to the pain and my health condition I went out without my very best lens.
I had gone out because it was supposed to be sunny all afternoon. It was sunny for about three minutes in total .. thank you yet again, weather people! I had intended to got artistic and bokeh shots of flowers for my other digital photography blog, as I had the day before. Though admittedly it is somewhat early in the year and there is not a lot about. Some wild violets were seen but not very good condition and there were some Daffodils, Hyacinths and some trees with white blossom. But the weather was shit and dull and I stumbled across these Red Crested Pochards.
I need to open up the aperture a little with this lens in future for birds.. an f1.4. This was also at Finsbury Park in London.
I am preoccupied with another blog subject that is about to get a little nuts.
The weather being highly variable and unpredictable has not helped my pursuit of British Wildlife, though the outcome of mad subject matter will help all my blogs no end in a few months time. Fingers crossed, lol.
A lone Lapwing was spotted along with a lone Shoveller, Canada Goose and one pair of what I first thought were Gadwalls but did not look right, lol.
No dancing or zooming through the water like a turbocharged torpedo but as well as the photos below I do have a video of another individual!
The Great Crested Grebe and as majestic as they look you shoould really see their courtship dance and even more rarely when they are under water chasing fish. They move at speeds that seem quite impossible and improbable! A brother and myself saw this taking place and a small roach leaping out the water. While standing on a bridge by the Bittern Hide at Fishers Green in Lea Valley Park we BOTH thought this fast moving missile was a PIKE?!
Even so we were amazed at the speed it was travelling but when it came up out the water with the Roach in its beak we looked at each other with awe.
All the years we have spent around animals both British and exotic and something we think of as an everyday species of British Bird wows us with something quite stunning indeed!
Right a Gadwall and then some pictures of one that threw me somewhat as I had never seen one like that, if indeed it IS a Gadwall that is?!
It was very dark and i am not brilliant with Water Foul if I am honest and do not know if they change their plumage. Or perhaps just a freaky dark one or something else I am not familiar with I just do not know, lmao!!
