From the Field

November 2009 - harbour mud

I have always liked Pagham Harbour and I visit it whenever I can get down to the south coast. It is one of those places where you can get nearly everywhere and where sitting in a quite corner can often pay off with some nice images. You do have to not mind the mud too much though!

This particular visit was quite kind to me and I did at least get some new shots. I know that dunlin and brent geese aren’t particularly rare but we don’t get too many around Coventry all the same.

This short-eared owl provided one of those ‘nearly’ occasions. It nearly came close enough, but then turned away and landed in the middle of the harbour. All the same it was a joy to watch.

I absolutely love this shot and I will show it at a larger size somewhere else on my site in the future. The bird is blurred due to an inadequate shutter speed, but I don’t think that it detracts from this high key image at all; in fact I think it adds to it considerably.

Estuaries are dynamic places. The water level rising and falling with the tides moves the birds up and down the shoreline gradually pushing them closer and closer to the patient cameraman. There is always something happening and at any moment something different can come round the corner or over the headland. Watching from a static hide or through binoculars from a distance is a very poor substitute for crouching down on the mud among the birds and I can see what it is that makes wildfowling so addictive to the shooting fraternity.