Purple Sandpipers - Sheringham

It's that time once again, when the Purple Sandpipers have returned to their wintering grounds in Norfolk. I look forward to putting my head over the wall at Sheringham early in the morning and looking down onto the rocks to find these lovely little birds. I was lucky enough to do this at the weekend whilst visiting my parents.
The sun had barely come up, and the light was poor, but there were 3 of the little beauties all snuggled up on the rocks.

I wandered off to look at some Turnstones and when I came back they were on the move. 

Redesmere

There were quite a few other ducks, geese and gulls at Redesmere last week. Here are just a few of them. Hopefully there may be a few rarer birds as we go into the winter months. It would be even better if there is sunshine like this all the time. Light makes photography so much easier. All that's needed then are the birds.

Great Crested Grebe about to take off

A nice male Tufted Duck

And the female.

Great Egret - Redesmere

Luck was on my side last weekend. I'd seen that a Great Egret had been reported just a few miles down the road at Redesmere. I actually forgot about it on Saturday, until it was dark. So I made a concerted effort to get along there on Sunday morning. I wasn't disappointed. As I parked the car it flew right in front of me and landed just metres away on the edge of the mere.
I got the camera out of the boot and was able to get to a decent position to watch and photograph.
I spotted a second further away, and it wasn't long before this too flew towards me and gave good views as it flew almost overhead.

With a Black-headed Gull in the foreground for size comparison.

This was the second bird that kindly gave a nice fly pass.

The first bird gave good prolonged views while preening.

I was delighted to get my first decent shots of this rare visitor to my part of the world.

Autumn in the North West

A nice bright day on the north west coast always lends itself to a good opportunity to take the camera out. It was busy on the Wirral coast as the tide came in, with plenty of waders, gulls and seabirds. The weather had certainly turned more Autumn like and there was cold bite in the air. Here's what I saw.

A Curlew just above the sand at New Brighton

A lone Pink-footed Goose proving that Autumn had really arrived.

Good numbers of Shelduck were at Hoylake and Meols.

A Common Gull resting on the sand before high tide.

The very elusive Water Rail made an unexpected appearance. Never easy to sea these birds, as they usually stick to the reeds. This was a real bonus.

Lapwing

Breeding season is over and the autumn influx of waders has brought many to inland sites. Most have passed though now to their warmer winter homes, but quite a few will stay and overwinter at many of our inland lakes. Lapwings have been gathering in good numbers, and being able to look at some at close quarters just reminded me how colourful and pretty these birds are.

Standing almost motionless on the shoreline of a lake.