Parkgate

Some of you may well have already seen Hazy's pics from the Parkgate Tidewatch. Here are mine, starting with the Stonechat.

Unfortunately, not a lot else came close during the high tide. Afterwards I wandered a little further down the coast and got a Great White Egret flying by. Nice to get the light through its wings.

Now, if you saw Winterwatch then you'll know Short-eared Owls are quite keen on golf and I found two on the course.

Unfortunately, they're not actually very good at it and seem to spend more time searching the rough for lost balls

Whose ball is this?

Occasionally, one would drift across the coastal path (past multiple photographers) over the saltmarsh, just in case anyone had gone out of bounds

This was all very well and beautiful to watch, but mildly frustrating because these pictures are heavily cropped as the birds maintained their distance.

Eventually, however, they did give some really nice views

I've had several attempts to get close shots this Winter, so I think we'll call that objective achieved

I did start by saying there were two, but most of these have all been the same owl. This one is much darker.

Apart from getting good Shortie shots, I've also struggled to photograph Redwing this year, so guess what was in the field behind the car park.

A whole host of them and I don't think I've ever seen such friendly Redwings. They were almost too close

Even when disturbed, they came back again almost immediately and I ended up taking the teleconverter off

Winter objective number two achieved!