It was getting light when I got out this morning, there were many birds on the pond: gulls, ducks, black winged stilts and shore birds. After getting into the hide the black-headed gulls reappeared soon. There wasn't much light for a while, so I couldn't take decent photos. But the light conditions improved slowly, and with the ruffs' arrival the number of successful images increased:
Ruff (male)
Ruff (male)
Even a magpie landed on a reef:
Magpie
A landing black-headed gull:
Black-headed Gull
The spotted redshanks appeared as well:
Spotted Redshank
With the arrival of the spotted redshanks and black-winged stilts the morning sunbeams appeared as well lighting the birds beautifully:
Spotted Redshank
Black-winged Stilt
Spotted Redshank
Black-winged Stilt
Black-winged Stilt
Black-winged Stilt
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Meanwhile a whiskered tern landed and began preening itself:
Whiskered Tern
Whiskered Tern
Teals were very active:
Teal (male)
Teal (male)
Teal (male)
Spotted Redshank
Then a group of black-winged stilts gave a performance: they cried in chorus while waving their wings, ...:
Black-winged Stilt
Black-winged Stilt
Black-winged Stilt
Black-winged Stilt
... sometimes hurtled each other, then sat down peacefully to repeat this procedure again after a while.
The coots turned up as well:
Coot
Teal (male)
The neighbourhood of the hide must have been a good place for getting food as two young stilts circled the hide many times feeding there:
Young Black-winged Stilt
Some birds spent a lot of time with preening and scratching themselves:
Ruff (male)
Black-winged Stilt
A green sandpiper turned up in front of me, I haven't met this bird for ages:
Green Sandpiper
Spotted Redshank
Great attention must be paid on the feathers:
Ruff (male)
Ruff (male)
Ruff (male)
Ruff (male)
Ruff (male)
Black-headed Gull
Black-headed Gull
Coot
Suddenly my attention was caught by a ferruginous duck family coming towards me from reed at the opposite side of the pond, ...:
Ferruginous Ducks
Ferruginous Ducks
Ferruginous Ducks
... then having a rest on a reef:
Ferruginous Ducks
They didn't stay long there, the mum leaded the youngs back towards the safe reed.
Then the avocets appeared ...:
Avocet
... and a young black-headed gull landed on the pond sipping some water:
Black-headed Gull
Black-headed Gull
One of the avocets gave a good performance as well: It tried to dismiss all the birds from the neighbourhood where its youngs were. When a bird got a bit closer to the youngs the parent set about it at once and the bird had been dismissed:
Avocet
A great white egret appeared too and walked just in front of my hide:
Great White Egret
This spotted redshank had been chased by the avocet as well:
Spotted Redshank
Preening:
Garganey (female)
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Ruff (male)
When the avocet wasn't chasing it was feeding:
Avocet
Avocet
Avocet
I noticed a black-tailed godwit near the opposite shore but it didn't come closer.
A few lapwings turned up too:
Lapwing
I caught sight of a small sized gull while landing and starting preening. After examining it better I realised that it was a young little gull:
Little Gull
Little Gull
Little Gull
Meanwhile the teals would come and go:
Teal (male)
Teal (male)
Garganeys turned up too:
Garganey (female)
Then I noticed a spotted redshank fighting with a tadpole in it's beak:
Spotted Redshank
The redshank was twirling it, sopped it into the water, was walking with it, made many attempts but still didn't succeed:
Spotted Redshank
And suddenly the tadpole disappeared from its beak, but after all I didn't find out wether it managed to swallow it or not.
Then my attention was caught by the teals again:
Teal (male)
Teal (male)
Teal (male)
Teal (male)
It's a long time since I last saw the green shank:
Greenshank
Teal (male)
Meanwhile the avocet parent was chasing the birds tirelessly in behalf of it's youngs I suppose, which were having a rest peacefully on a reef:
Young avocets
A couple of dragonfly appeared in front of me as well, I couldn't skip them:
A black-headed gull was busy adjusting its leg for quite a long time:
Black-headed Gull
Black-headed Gull
The female teals got closer too:
Teal (female)
The two siblings:
Young avocets
Avocet in attack:
Avocet
Avocet
Avocet
Not only the young stilts were circling my hide but their parents as well, if they were really their parents. When they passed in front of the hide noticing their reflection in the window, they tried to bite it splattering this way the window. My attempts of making some noise and knocking the hide proved to be useless to making them leave the place.
The young avocet got tired so it sat down:
Young avocet
There were so many birds all morning that many times they were covering each other while I wanted to take shots of them. On the other hand the number of the birds exceeded all my expectations.
