A pleasant morning was spent at Hartsholme Park yesterday before I headed to the gym. There was three of us shooting, Chris Bennett, my lovely wife and myself.
It was fairly quiet, as usual a few Heron’s but not as many as usual, Greylag and Canadian Geese, but still not as many as usually flew in to visit the lake.
We walked around the main lake heading for a Coots nest when we spotted a rather tame Robin.
He seemed quite content while three photographers pointed their long lens at him and snapped away!
To get to the Coots nest you have to cross over the lake via a bridge at the southern end. As we approached Caroline spotted a couple of adult Coots diving for food, and feeding it to their young who where swimming nearby. Then a couple of Great Crested Grebes also appeared, one diving for food while the other stayed on the surface. The one that never dived looked a little odd, and it took a while before we realised that one had young tucked away on its back.
The Coots were mainly feeding under the bridge, but the Grebe’s were wandering all over the lake.
Once they had disappeared from view we crossed over to the West Bank of the Lake and headed to the Coots nest that we had been watching for a number of weeks now.
We had seen it being built and now the young were getting bolder and briefly leaving the nest.
A fun morning, certainly not as many birds as usual but it was great to see how the Coots were getting on, and good fun spending the morning photographing with Chris and Caroline.
OK Chris, I see you got your revenge.