Spoonbill Stake Out

The welcome sunshine that arrived yesterday sent me down to RSPB Lodmoor for another crack at getting a decent Spoonbill shot. Last weekend's effort had been a complete waste of time as they kept their distance, rendering a mere record shot as the only outcome. Once I arrived it was quite easy to find them, but getting a shot was out of the question. So I set up in the shelter where I could at least track their movements and hope they would come close. Suffice to say, four hours later they had moved a few times, but never came close so I gave up for the day.
Today was a different matter and Rose and I set off again hoping it would be our lucky day. As we approached the shelter, we could see that they were quite close and meeting up with our friends Frank and Chris, they reckoned we should get a result. Once again we set up in the shelter along with another friend Danny, who had already been there for nearly three hours. At this point the 'Spoons' were all sleeping and although each would stir briefly and preen for a few minutes, they just went back to sleep again. And so it remained for another couple of hours until one of the trio started walking, quickly joined by the other two. We hoped that finally they would move near enough to get a decent shot and very quickly they took to the air. For a couple of minutes they circled around, getting higher and higher and then started to dive down. It looked as though they had found a spot to land, but then suddenly they climbed again. A couple more circuits and they did land, in the middle of the reserve where once more a shot was impossible. So this shot I grabbed as they were taking off was about the best I could get today. But there's always tomorrow………….