The Highest Tide

in WORLD OF XPILAR3 years ago

The knots I was lucky enough to photo yesterday in Snettisham, Norfolk in England represent 10% of the world’s population. This was the highest tide of the year which gives you the best opportunity to admire thousands of seabirds. They visit the UK to enjoy a milder winter coming from the Arctic where they breed.

DSC_0114.JPG
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/500 Aperture: f/4.3

The tide pushes them on to the mud but the super tide comes in higher than normal, which forces them to take off the mud and fly over to the nearest shallow bit of water. The tide has to be more than 6.8 metres for the bird spectacular to happen.

DSC_0111.JPG
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 250
Shutter Speed: 1/500 Aperture: f/4.5

A flock of knots was chased by a peregrine falcon. The silvery formations they fly in remind me of the Northern Lights but with birds.

This miracle of nature requires an early start. I was lucky to have a permit which allows you to park near the area where the birds gather and then are forced to fly off. Still I had to wake up up at 6:15am. Then I was able to enjoy thousands of knots flying over my head at sunrise.

PDSC_0405.jpg
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 280
Shutter Speed: 1/500 Aperture: f/5.3

After that I fought for a spot in the newly built bird hide just opposite the shallow water where they landed and took great group photos of them whilst I rubbed shoulders with British award winning wild life photographers.

DSC_0397.JPG
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 220
Shutter Speed: 1/500 Aperture: f/5.3

Be prepared that you will be kneeling or lying on the floor to take the money shots. I improvised a mat using my rain coat. Take a hot drink, water and snacks with you so you’re not missing on anything while watching your feathered friends.

DSC_0066.JPG
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/640 Aperture: f/5.3

One of the photographers had his child with him and had to keep encouraging the kid to stay there longer by promising him ice-creams and toys. Other birdwatchers have been watching the birds here and waiting for a spectacular to happen for the past four days. So lucky me for choosing this Saturday morning as they all agreed that it simply doesn’t get any better than this!


Thousands of knots in the sky on 9th October 2021 in RSPB Snettisham Nature Reserve, Norfolk.

Sort:  

I love the couple watching the birds in the sunrise, looks very romantic!

I don’t believe I have ever seen so many birds together they have blocked out the whole sky, must have been very impressive to see and worth the early morning start!

 3 years ago 

Thank you ever so much @hazyjames I think it was well worth the early morning start ⏰ I just wish I was still there, by the sea 🌊

 3 years ago 

Amazing experience and images.

 3 years ago 

Thank you ever so much @datych It was one of a kind experience indeed! I was extremely lucky with the nice sunny weather 🔆

 3 years ago 

Thank you @datych for resteeming 💻my post too 🤝 I am pretty sure that this way it will reach and hopefully interest even more people 💁‍♀️

 3 years ago 

I hope so. It deserves more attention and upvotes.

 3 years ago 

Thank you ever so much @datych I really hope so as the birds are something I really care about and I would love if more people did too. They are everywhere around us even in the cities. So once you start spotting them they can make even a boring day exciting 💁‍♀️

Your post is manually rewarded by the
World of Xpilar Community Curation Trail

STEEM AUTO OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY XPILAR TEAM

 3 years ago 

Thank you ever so much 🙌 @worldofxpilar I am really pleased with the upvote and that you resteemed my post 💁‍♀️This certainly is a great motivation for members like me to keep contributing to WOX 💻

 3 years ago (edited)

Аккаунт был взломан, сейчас все норм

 3 years ago 

Thank you ever so much @darina14 I checked that link and I really don’t feel comfortable entering my Steemit account details on an external website. What is more the links on that website don’t appear to go anywhere.

 3 years ago 

You're correct - never click a link that then requires you to enter your details - that's how so many accounts get hacked, lose all of their Steem and end up sharing even more phishing links 😟

 3 years ago 

Thanks for getting back to me on the above @the-gorilla 🤝 I’m really glad that I did the right thing. It’s sad that people try to hack accounts as all of us here who contribute to the platform work hard to earn Steem 💻 But I guess it’s unavoidable like the scam emails, text messages and phone calls we sometimes get.

 3 years ago 

Yes exactly, they happen a lot sadly. The message is often spread from an account that had clicked on one of these links and there are so many stories of people who have had their steem stolen. The worse thing is that we know which accounts are doing it but for whatever reason, they still exist 😡

 3 years ago 

Oh Dear @the-gorilla I remember reading @bambuka's post telling us about never to enter our log in details on external websites regardless of how tempting it may sound to get some more Steem because you've been selected for whatever reason. The more you read the more you know 🤓