Mr and Mrs

This is the same pair of Marsh Harriers that I blipped on 13 November.  I've seen them in close proximity to each other quite a bit in the intervening time, if not actually together.  The main shot is of the male, and the extra is of the female.  The two shots were taken within a minute or two of each other, as the birds both quartered the small open area in the reeds by the hide that I was in.  The sun is quite low at the moment, hence the shadow on both birds.

Its strange, yesterday the weather was supposed to be dry after 8am.  In practice it tipped down from about 8:30am to 9:30am and I was trapped in the hide I had just managed to get into in time.  I say "trapped" I was wearing sensible waterproof clothing, and the camera kit is certainly weather sealed, although with the deluge we were experiencing I didn't feel inclined to test it.  :-)  

(I've always got a waterproof cover/bag and a chamois leather to dry things off if necessary, but I'd rather not have to).

Today on the other hand, the forecast was for showers most of the day.  When I woke it was torrential, but then all of a sudden the sky cleared and there's been no sign of rain since.  I dare say we'll get more later on today, particularly now that I've tempted the rain gods.

Last night, I went to a very interesting talk on the art in nature photography given by Victoria Hillman who has been a judge for both Bird Photographer Of The Year (BPOTY) and British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) and is a judge on WildArt POTY.  I definitely came away feeling inspired, although undoubtedly one of the take away points was that you ideally want to shoot with something like an f2.8 lens if you can.  Ho hum, that's not going to happen any time soon.   :-)