Since lockdown restrictions have been eased, I've made a few trips back to Oare Marshes KWT wildlife reserve. It has been such a joy to get back up there over the last month. Although I missed going there for the whole of April, given the state of the pandemic, I just did not feel at all like going. Now that it is available again, I think it is more popular than ever. By mid-morning, there are cars (as well as motorbikes and bicycles) littered everywhere as the car park gets full. (Earlier this month, I was there late morning, and there seemed to be more humans than birds. Early morning or late evening seem to be the best times if you are looking for a bit of solitude.) Getting back out to such a lovely place, with its wildlife, views over the sea and untamed marsh, is exactly what everyone seems to need, whether for bird watching, wildflowers, jogging, or just walking with the family. The good thing is that for the most part, people respect social distancing, and the footpaths are generally wide enough to do this without difficulty.

Here are some pictures from one day last week. Last Saturday (20 June) I made two visits: one in the morning in the hope of photographing warblers; the other just before sunset on the longest day.

In the morning, I was lucky with some sedge warblers that ignored me completely; they sat close by and sang their hearts out. The reed warblers were also out and about, but never close enough for a picture; Cetti's warblers sang from cover, and I never even saw them. There were some linnets around too, and a couple of them were very cooperative.

I came back later in the day, aiming to get some pictures of swifts hunting over the reed beds while the sun was low in the sky. I've seen them there several times in the evening: they dart fast, only just above the reeds, moving unpredictably as they gorge on insects on the wing. The evening sun also illuminates the undersides of their wings, showing up feather patterns in photographs. I managed some pictures, as you'll see below, but I'm sure I can do better.

However, a surprise awaited. Arriving in the car park, we could see a party of spotters on the sea wall with their scopes focussed on something inland. It turned out that there was a long-eared owl hunkered down under thick bushes, only just visible through a scope. I've no idea how the first person to spot it did so: it was invisible to the naked eye. We left the spotters to it at that point, and walked along the sea wall to get some pictures of the swifts.

At the end of the evening, after we had walked all around the reserve to come back to the car park, I noticed one of the spotters still on the sea wall, looking in the direction of where the owl had been. The owl had moved out of cover a bit, but the spotter had lost it. All of a sudden, I realised it was on top of a bush (see the opening picture, above). It sat there for a few moments, then flew off over the reed beds. A few hundred meters out, it hovered briefly, before diving on some prey. I waited for a while in case it reappeared, but never saw it again. A long-eared owl is a first for me at Oare. As I understand it, they don't come down this way that often, so a rare piece of luck.

FWIW, all the pictures here were taken with the Nikon D500 and 500PF lens.