As my mam is just out of hospital me and the wife have been up to Northumberland for the weekend. As ever i managed to get a small trip in with the old camera! This time we visited a place that has a very close to my heart, Washington wildfowl and wetlands centre. If you happen to be visiting the area its a place well worth a visit. it breeds a range of rare species such as the Ne-ne, but also provides a fantastic stop off for a range of migratory species.

My connection is largely around a mallard that i looked after at university and released with the help of the staff at the centre. unfortunately we didn’t see him this time but that would have been tough after 7 years i bet the plastic ring has gone.

As this was only a fleeting visit I wanted to get a few photos but just to be outside with my camera. after wading through the bar-headed geese and eiders I attempted to get some shots of my most favourite of wildfowl the Mandarin….he was having non of it! its amazing how much more fun some grass looks when i have a lens pointed at him!

So after this mini defeat we headed in to the woods seeing a range of things on the way, goldeneyes, mallards and seagully type things. when arriving at the wood hide (location and construction) we were met by a (bugger i don’t know the collective noun for big lenses….) ‘sore-arm’ of massive lenses??? I was packing my blow pipe looking 400mm L 5.6 but still had fun!

All of the surrounding bushes and trees were full of birds in eager anticipation of getting some fat or some nuts, little did they realise that was all only put there for the squirrels! or so they thought! the bull finches and chaffys were waiting their turn but it wasn’t till a child dropped a cake or something to create an echo in the hide did the squirrel take shelter.

As much as I love sitting in hides waiting for some fun to happen it was a little busy and the 3.00 kick off at the toon was calling!

on getting home i was shocked to find a kite circling my parents back garden! shame i had a handful of coats and bags to stop me getting the old canon out in time! still nice to see it!