A few disappointing local trips.

I've not done a post for a while now but it's not because I haven't been out it's because when I have been out I haven't seen any decent birds let alone taken any shots.

Last Friday I went over to Draycote Water knowing that because of the fine weather I would be very lucky to see anything decent as DW is a bad weather place but I did fancy a bit of a walk.I couldn't walk to the spit as there were 3 fishing boats almost on the foreshore so I walked round to Rainbow.I did find a Curlew Sandpiper near the outlet but the shoreline is so far away from the path now due to the low water levels it's not easy to ID birds let alone get a shot.

Had lunch sitting on the wall at Rainbow where I was joined by Francoise who showed me this shot she took a few days ago at the inlet.It clearly show two top birders/photographers and Kath.

On the walk back to the car park I again saw nothing of note except a Peregrine that annoyingly flew off before coming close so only a crappograph.

I went to Marsh lane on Sunday morning and although there were loads of Gulls,Geese and Ducks nothing of note showed to point the camera at.On Monday afternoon I had a walk down the Hatton locks canal but the wind was very strong and I saw nothing at all.So that was 3 local trips and only one crappograph to show for the trouble.

I was keen to go out with the camera on Tuesday as I had been dabbling with the camera's micro adjustment facility which allows you to fine tune the AF to get sharper shots.Great if you know what you are doing.I don't !!!!! With this in mind I went over to Brandon Marsh to test out what I had done.

Met Kath in the car park and we headed to the Steetly hide because this had been the best hide recently but when we got there it was closed as vandal damage was being repaired.Oh Dear!!!!

We had seen nothing from all the other hides on route to the Carlton Hide which was very quiet as well.After half an hour a kestrel appeared but didn't come very close but I did manage a few shots.This is the best which shows that my dabbling with the lens micro adjustment facility might not be a success and I may have to go back to the drawing board.

We then went on a walk round and although we found a lot of Goldcrests but seeing them let alone getting a shot was very difficult.Here is my best shot which as you can see is a crappograph.

After a visit to the cafe where the pretty waitress cheered me up a lot telling me about her trip to Rome I went to the tip area to see if I could see any raptors cruising in the warm conditions.There were a few Common Buzzards about but my shots weren't great and I'm not sure if this was down to the birds not being close enough or it was down to the lens micro adjustment.

So four local trips and no decent shots.Oh Dear!!!!!