Wetland's Woodcock Wonder

The Woodcock is a bird that I have always wanted to get onto my list. At this time of year, wintering birds from the continent increase their numbers in Britain and one bird has been spending the last couple of weeks at one of my local patches, the London Wetland Centre. When my Grandparents kindly offered to take me to the reserve, I raced to grab my camera and 300mm lens (not forgetting to say thanks of course!).

On arriving at the area where the Woodcock was hiding, a man offered to look for the bird for us. He soon got onto it and I spent about 10 minutes trying to pinpoint the bird in my lens!

I took a first shot to try and find it..... can you see it?? Note the two plastic bags- we were told to look for these when trying to find it!

Once I'd located the Woodcock it was just a matter of zooming in and radical cropping!! Here is the finished image (I managed to take this shot just as it was about to turn around and fall asleep).

And a blown up shot-explains loss of quality ;-)

Back on the main lake and the Great Crested Grebes are turning from grey to red as they put on their summer plumage

Talking about Grebes, I watched a male Little Grebe trying to show off to the females.... by the looks of things, he'd lost his touch ;)

Finishing off with this stunning male Teal, one of many on the lake. Soon, a lot of the wildfowl here will be leaving to make way for our summer visitors!