Egrets and a close call with a Sparrowhawk !!

Hi all,

Its been a while but its good to be back. Been so busy with work that i havent had much of a chance to get out, but yesterday i managed to get up to WWT Llanelli for a few hours with the beast - my brand new Sigma 150- 500 Lens. Still very much a budding photographer but at least i looked a pro - right? :)

It was nice and quiet up there so i had the chance to settle in a few of the hides and experiment. Just for you pros, the pictures have been cropped and sharpened so when you click on the thumbnail they may well look a bit grainy due to ISO levels combined with shutter speeds - OK !!!

Theres a lot of little egrets up there at the moment which are a beautiful bird - very much like a Heron but snow white. They fly really beautifully with their gangly legs dangling from the sky - more akin to a stork delivering a baby !!

I headed of to the Peter Scott hide overlooking one of the lagoons, and all seemed quiet. Then in flew a couple of black-tailed Godwits, a little like a Curlew but with a very straight beak. A guy id passed on the way to the hide said that a sparrowhawk had been seen in the area, and after about an hour it shot out from the woods sending ducks, moorhens and every other bird diving for cover. Unfortunately it happened so fast that i was shooting in aperture rather than shutter priority. This is the best shot i got which aint bad but could have been soo much better :( Awesome to see though.

Also a few dragonflies around and after much frustration i got a half decent shot of a Migrant Hawker to finish the day. Hopefully i'll be out with the new lens soon and some more shots.

Later... Stu