I hardly ever post on a regular basis but when I do its always about colours. Well so far this autumn for me has been a riot of colour. A trip to Fleetwood marine lake started it all off with a gorgeous summer plumaged Red-throated Diver. Still in full summer these birds are stunning. Although beautiful it was evident to me after a very short time that this bird was not well. During the time I watched it the bird never caught any food and kept closing its eyes. At one point this bird flopped out onto the concrete sides of the the lake surrounded by litter and drinks bottles and looked very ungainly and somewhat pathetic, far from the graceful beauty when in the water. My fear for this bird was confirmed two days later when it was found dead.
What amazed me when watching the other 'Flockarazzi' was how many of them seemed to be blasting away at the bird when it had its eyes closed or when the background had the concrete sides of the lake in view. This is is now the fourth marine lake in the North West that I have photographed Red-throated Diver following on from Crosby, West Kirby and Fairhaven, but the first summer plumaged bird.
When out of the water it is not hard to see just why divers are such powerful swimmers, just look at the size of the birds feet.
This month I have also been over to Ohio for work with Opticron and been to one of the best places in the world to photograph American wood warblers. Magee Marsh is just fantastic for photography and is even better in Spring. Although my time was limited as we were on outr way back to Detroit to catch a flight home, the 700 yard boardwalk produced a stunning array of warblers. Cape May, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Myrtle, Canada, American Redstart, Nashville, Connecticut, Blackpoll, Bay-breasted all on view but sadly not all photographed. If interested in North American warblers then this is THE place to go and placed very highly on my list of places to re-visit.
