Messing about in the water!

I went looking for the young Barn Owls again this evening, there was no luck in that area and I had a premature ending to the evening but I did have a couple of other nice surprises! 

 

I ended up searching near to Saddington Reservoir, just the usual Mallards, Herons and a few Great Crested Grebes. Whilst I was checking out the distant shoreline through my binoculars in hope that a Barnie may be out hunting early a  white bird flashed across my view...........Barn Owl!!!!

 

I recomposed myself and locked onto the bird, I then realised it was wishful thinking that it was a Barn Owl, but a decent bird never the less......an Osprey! I have never seen one here before and a very good consolation prize. It was hunting and I wanted to get some action images of it. From where I stood on the dam wall the bird was about half a mile away and getting a "keeper" with my 300 lens was going to be tricky! Rather than chase around the reservoir in close pursuit I opted to stand my ground and wait for it to come to me. It didn't come any closer than when I first saw it, so my "dot in the distance" image was the best I got!

 

Whilst waiting for the Osprey to come closer a splash in the water in front of me grabbed my attention, it was a Grass Snake and it was chasing after the fry in the margins! I'd never seen that before so the Osprey was soon forgotten and I was now in pursuit of a more slippery character.

 

I hid behind a clump of vegetation and waited for it to come closer, the images were OK but I wanted to get low down at eye level as I thought it would make for a better composition? As I was doing so I lost my footing and went straight into the water, luck would have I only got wet up to my knees and even luckier my camera was still dry!

 

All the commotion stopped the snake in its tracks, it was giving me "the stare", that was the moment and I think I made the most of it?

 

Needless to say that after my clumsy actions the snake dived and wasn't seen again, but thankfully I got the image I was after even though I was soaking wet!