Bitterns (more like lack of!)

My winter photography has so far been concentrated on photographing my local wintering bitterns. I was hoping by this stage to have some images to show you. I say hoping, because this was the plan. Unfortunately I have no decent photos to show you, due to a combination of circumstances such as me not being able to get down there as much as I'd like, and the fact the conditions haven't been favourable for them coming near the hides. While I've been waiting, however, there's been plenty of other birds to photograph. One such bird is the sparrowhawk. Both the male and female often fly across in front of the hide whilst hunting for snipe, and I managed to capture a couple of shots in the rain one morning.

On the same morning I also spent some time photographing the mallards.

On another afternoon, when as usual the bitterns weren't showing, I focused on capturing the mallards as they took off.

 I couldn't leave it without showing any bittern photos, so this is about as good as it gets so far I'm afraid. Oh well, still a long time before they fly back to Europe!

Hopefully next time I'll have something more promising to show you!

Thanks for reading.