Local Bird Clean Sweep

Birding can be a little dull round here sometimes, but I pretty much swept up the local spring specialities in just a couple of weekends, at just a handful of sites - and got some nice images of most of them too, thanks to the favourable weather. The list alone I was pleased with: Grasshopper Warbler (including some of my best shots ever), Spotted Redshank (an adult in summer plumage), Marsh Harrier (scarce in Cumbria but increasingly common round here), Little Ringed Plover (at the usual haunt), 2 Wood Sandpipers (at the same site - I found the second one), summer-plumaged Knot, Dunlin and Golden Plover, Whimbrel (lots), near-summer-plumaged Ruff, Barn Owl, Cuckoo, and some very photogenic Sedge Warblers and Linnets perched on bright yellow gorse... So, all in all, a very productive week. In terms of commoner waders, these are my best images:

These three, however, were the wader stars of the show (Spotted Redshank, Wood Sandpiper & Whimbrel):

These were the songsters:

...whilst others had their mouths full:

...or were looking for a meal:

My favourite shots are probably the string of Whimbrel, the smart (but annoyingly distant) Spotted Redshank, the (very confiding) summer-plumaged Knot and the Marsh Harrier (another unusual image - it's not often one flies over your head! But this one stole the show: the 'woodland' Grasshopper Warbler (a beautifully clean image in an unusual setting).

After this spell of good weather, it turned cold again, and this put a dampener on the birding.