CATTLE STAMPEDE AT MARSH LANE.

Last Friday I went down to Marsh Lane pretty early because the ringer Ben Dolan was coming down and quite often he catches some decent birds.I found his car parked down the causeway ( a long run of pathway between two bodies of water with steep banks on both sides).As soon as I found out he had had slim pickings on the reedbed pool I left and moved on to the railway pool.

It was pretty cold and I soon got fed up trying to find something on the railway pool so I headed back to see if Ben had had any luck.As soon as I got back onto the causeway I heard loud mooing from the reedbed pool area.Somehow the herd of 30+ cows had got through the fencing and were now on the reserve.I went into panic mode.

I glimpsed the herd  racing towards the causeway path from the right and I realized if they turned left onto the causeway I would be a dead man.I was now in full blown panic mode and somehow resisting the urge to scream I raced along the causeway when I saw Ben getting into his car.

He let me in just seconds before the herd now in full stampede mode turned onto the causeway and raced towards us.Seeing Ben's car blocking their way they charged up the bank on our left and raced by.The noise was deafening,clods of earth were being tossed into the air,their eyes were showing the whites and their mouths were foaming.A full mad stampede.Ben might have saved my life.

Help arrived later and the herd were eased off the reserve but not before other birders had had a fright as well.Marsh Lane is at the moment a very dangerous reserve to visit but I believe new fencing will be erected very soon to hopefully close the gap.

Back to more bird related news I am still struggling with my new mirrorless camera set up one of the problems is that since I've had it all the birds have stopped visiting my garden and I'm unable to test it and to set the camera up properly.Results so far have been disappointing.  

Did a bit better yesterday morning at Marsh Lane and managed a few not too bad shots.It's going to be a long learning curve.These are a couple of shots of the leader of the cow herd from Friday who was in a calmer mood luckily and he was at least 100m away.

Here some shots of stationery birds.All common birds but nice to see some returning Wigeon.

The big worry with the new set up is it is not supposed to be any good with flight shots which I loved  taking with my old set up.Had a go for the first time.It was harder but possible.