Although there are signs of spring everywhere, the temperature remains low, and the brisk northeasterly wind makes it feel colder than it is on Stanpit Marsh, Dorset. The total absence of cloud makes me wait until the sun is fairly low in the sky before I start shooting anything serious, and it is not until late afternoon that I get my first images of a Little Egret, here resplendent with its breeding plume on the back of its head.
I only manage 5 shots before it flies off out of range, but the appearance of two Shelducks get my attention as they fly onto the marsh. Unfortunately, they stay a good two hundred metres away from me, making any sort of meaningful photograph impossible.
However, I'm treated to the presence of a Teal (Anas crecca), the smallest duck in Britain. Although flocks are a familiar sight on estuaries and mudflats during the winter, they tend to be nervous and flighty, and I consider myself lucky to have got close enough to photograph one.
300 mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor with TC-14EII.
Little Egret: 1/4000 second at f/5.6. -0.33EV. ISO 400
Teal: 1/1600 second at f/5.6. -0.67EV. ISO 400
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