Good month for coots

Well, more like a good month for my coot pictures really!  It was very nice indeed to get the front cover of Birdwatch but to also get the inside of Bird Watching and a sale by my agent, all from the same session, was quite unexpected.

They were taken at Arundel WWT in Sussex, January before last.  I spent much of the day photographing at the main lake, most notably wigeon, but as the day drew on I turned my attentions to a frozen pond harbouring mallard and coot.  With the sun slowly setting, the light was perfect and for the next hour I lay flat on the ground with the 300 f2.8 lens resting on the ice in order for me to get as low as possible.  As the coots are much darker than middle tone, I set the camera to deliberately underexpose by -1 stop.

Tags: arundel wwt, bird watching, birdwatch, coot, flpa, ice, winter