Lamby Lake Hirundines! - 28/04/2012

Slightly, shall we say 'worse for wear' after last night's work outing, Jess and I took a little walk around Lamby Lake in the afternoon to stretch our legs. A cormorant sat boldly at the small car park side jetty as we arrived and sheepishly allowed his photograph to be taken -

There were a lot more Swallows and Sand Martins hawking the water compared to last weekend, with about 20-30 present at any one time over the lake. They went about feeding without too much concern to our presence, and several flew within a few feet of us as we stood and watched them for a while. It was a hard job to get them in flight, and the low lighting conditions didn't do much to help.

These were all taken from the wooden walkway on the east side of the lake, and I'm determined to go back on a sunny morning to get some better shots with more favourable lighting conditions.

These shots have been quite heavily cropped and were mostly shot in the 150-200 region. I think it might be possible to get better shots with my 70-300mm next time. I'll also have to try and find out where the Sand Martin's are nesting!

Just as I was about to call time on photographing the Martins and Swallows, a male Mallard crashed onto the lake, about ten feet away -

A strange Mallard hybrid was happily swimming around the lake, as were two pairs of Tufted Duck, but last weekend's Great Crested Grebes were no where to be seen. A suspected Willow Warbler sang in the tress on the north side as we walked around the lake, and a suspected Reed Warbler was kicking up a fuss in the reeds on the South West side. A male Reed Bunting skittishly flew to cover near the car-park and the usual starlings near the benches were busy gorging on worms. With the weather unseasonably cold and gloomy, a quick flask of tea in the car warmed us up again.