Stithians today

I spent most of my day at Stithians reservoir southern cut-off,  A day that started  foggy, wet and grey and a challenge for telephoto photography  that gradually improved to good spells of sunshine towards the evening, my first subject on arrival was a Grey Heron predating on Frogs and Stickleback and  my auto-focus refused to work in the mist, rain and light levels so manual focus was the order of the day for my first few subjects a few of which are posted below,

The old saying good weather for ducks seemed to apply and this one below appeared to be quite happy,

But the same could not be said for the retched looking resident Jay below which was soaked to the skin

By contrast the local Little Grebes seemed to just shake it off

and carried on with their busy nest building exercise,

As the hours passed the day got steadily brighter and smaller birds began to arrive at the feeder station including this contrasty looking Reed Bunting,

Next up was this delicate little Willow Warbler which I was pleased to catch on the wing and No it was not taken on manual focus!

The local Great Spotted Woodpecker had been missing all day but showed up for a portrait shot just before I went home

As I walked back to my car I could see a distant fox out on the prowl on the hills behind the southern cut off which told me along with my growling stomach that it was time I was home for my dinner!