Lakenheath Wildlife

A couple of weeks ago, a small band of hardy nature photographers from the RPS headed out to the RSPB Reserve at Lakenheath Fen.  Being "Flaming June" the weather was cold, wet, cloudy and windy.  Perfect weather for photographing wildlife, in other words (not).

On the plus side, the conditions meant that there were lots of snails in evidence.

A longhorn beetle...

...and a couple more snails.

While the weather might not have been at its best for photography, we couldn't complain about the wildlife on show.  A couple of kingfishers were busy in the area where we based ourselves, and then someone spotted a bittern right at the other end of the lake.  It's a golden rule of bird photography that the subject is either too far away or moving too fast (or both) and this specimen was no exception.  The following sequence are virtually 100% crops of images taken with a 300/2.8 and 2x converter at around ISO 2000.

The bittern was minding its own business, having a good preen.

Although it had taken a while for us to spot the bittern, a swan saw it immediately and took exception to its presence, making a bee-line for its hiding place.

There followed a bit of a staring match...

...and then then the bittern decided that enough was enough.

Not great pictures, but an amazing piece of nature.

Speaking of "not great pictures", here's another rubbish shot of a kingfisher hovering.  Again, a 100% crop with the subject about half a mile away (well, that's what it felt like, anyway).

Slightly better, here is a female reed bunting on a stick (where else?).

Not a great day, photographically speaking, but definitely one of my better nature days having never seen a bittern before (always heard, never seen).