19 February 2023 - Hollingworth Lake

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Dipper, Oystercatchers

Continuing on the theme of dull and dingy mornings, today was no exception.  Two Oystercatchers were on the jetty by the Rowing Club car park, and later flew over towards Rakewood, where they fed in the field by the road, getting their bills full of mud (a feature common to most of the birds I've photographed recently it seems).  

At one point I thought I heard a Dipper call, but couldn't see anything and it didn't call again, so I decided I must have been mistaken, but this encouraged me to walk up towards Rakewood to see if I could spot one on the stream.  Sure enough, just as I reached the bridge over to the Rugby club, one flew out from just underneath and perched briefly on a stone mid-stream.  I took a couple of shots and it then flew upstream and out of sight.

Back at the lake, not much else showed itself, but when I reached the car park again, the Oystercatchers had returned, and were beginning to get a bit vocal.

Dipper, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 5000 (view full size image)

Oystercatchers, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 800 (view full size image)