Evening Surprise

I returned to the same farmland spot again last night and spent some time by the River Goyt.
I had a relaxing time at the waters edge watching Trout rising and Swallows and Swifts competing for flies.

It really was a glorious summers evening and as I made my way back to the car, the sun was casting long shadows across the fields.
In the shaded area of one of the fields, there was a movement in the long grass and the many Woodpigeon, Magpie and Crows became restless.

Soon the reason for the birds restlessness became clear and a beautiful Red Fox made her presence known.
This was a true countryside Fox and unlike many of her city counterparts was very vary of humans and no sooner than she spotted me, she skulked off into the long grass.
An all too brief but none the less memorable encounter...

2010: The Year So Far (2)

On January 2nd the bright sunshine of the first day of the new year had given way to a rather heavy looking sky as I left the house.

Things were looking ominous so I decided to postpone a planned trip to the Dee Estuary and instead drove much closer to home and to one of my favourite local patches Reddish Vale.

No sooner had I arrived, the heavy looking sky gave way and the first snow of the year fell.

95% of the lake at the Vale was frozen and hundreds of wildfowl were contesting the remaining unfrozen water.

Reddish Vale is probably one of the less visited nature reserves in Greater Manchester and contains all the very common species of wildfowl, however there are some gems to be found here from time to time and this day proved no exception when amongst the usual suspects I was treated to some very close views of this lovely little Shoveler...

Far from the madding crowd and perhaps contemplating how he was ever going to get any fishing done stood this very fine looking Grey Heron...One of three of it's type present, I would become very familiar with this individual over the next week or so....

Frustratingly the day also provided my first photographic disappointment of the year after I spotted a glorious looking Fox trekking through the snow in the woods only yards away.

Try as I might, I couldn't move myself into a position where I would have been able to get a clean shot and it was only a matter of time before I was spotted...

Oh well, there will be other days...