Sunday Morning ramble

I had another visit on Sunday morning  actually arriving after the gates were open! and I'm really glad I did because as soon as I started walking towards the first blind I heard the characteristic 'ping' of the Beardies and sure enough saw a small flock of them. They were too far away to get anything other than a record shot and flew deeper into the reeds as I approached but nevertheless any sighting is good. _

I saw a few ducks around in the lagoons, Gadwalll, Teal and Shoveler in addition to the usual Mallards. Viewed from the hide I saw Little Grebe feeding. Walking along the sea shore I didn't see the Stonechats down on the riverside reeds and grasses like I did on Wednesday but it was rather windy. As I approached the coastal path I saw two tugs towing a larger boat into Newport Docks and I thought I'd use it to test out my new Lumix Bridge camera. This has got a massive 60x optical zoom and is the equivalent of a 20mm to 1200mm system lens if such a thing existed.Obviously the sensor is only a fraction of the size of the full-frame SLRs so I'm not expecting miracles but to be honest it's been fine for what I've been doing. Here's an example going from ultra-wide angle to full telephoto

.

Walking further down the path I saw this Dunnock on a bramble and trapped a quick shot

By the screens at the power station end I watched a pair of Little Grebes diving

heading back towards the first screens there was a perky male Stonechat on the post!

Whilst I was photographing the Stonechat I heard a pinging began in the reed bed behind  me and I tracked down the source of the noise - a small flock of Bearded Tit's - unfortunately the majority of them immediately flew deeper into the reeds but I did manage to capture a couple of id shots. Hope you like!

__

Quite a few flocks of Goldfinches around!

_