Sunshine in the harbour

Yesterday saw me hanging around the harbour in Kamiiso most of the day. The weather was mild and the light was very good for taking photos of the various common winter birds in the harbour.

My main target was Black Necked Grebe, there were about a dozen of them. They were in the small port chasing small fish.........

A couple of the grebes didn't look so healthy, they seemed yo have some nasty growths/tumours around their beaks and eyes, I won't put you off your food by uploading those photos.

They whizzed around the port making their whistling calls..........

And the water was so calm I got some nice reflections.........

Sorry, a little repetitive I know. Here's the most interesting grebe shot of the day........

Other stuff in and near the harbour included Great Crested Grebe, Black Scoter, Goldeneye, Red Breasted Merganser and lots of Scaup.

The pair of Harlequin Duck were still present, I finally get close to these in nice light but all I get is a female and immature male................life just isn't fair sometimes...........

There were several Glaucous Gull around, they tend to be much shyer than the resident Slatybacks, this BIF of a young one was the best I could manage today.........

On one of the 2 nearby rivers there were loads of salmon still spawning and lots of Black Headed Gulls feasting on the roe. Other stuff on the rivers included Wigeon, Pintail, Goosander, over 20 (!) Great Egret, Grey Heron, Coot and Pochard...........

The rain came back last night, it keeps getting cold then getting mild and wet again. C'mon winter, get your act together.

The Euro 2012 draw looks interesting, we've got one host nation, one bogey team and France. Could have been worse, could have been better. If we just get out of the group I'll be happy.

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