12.04.2021 Coots.

 ~~

Monday 12th 38-46F, overnight frost, bright but with lots of thin high cloud. Hopefully warmer and brighter than yesterday's miserable, 34F and snow, wintry performance!

An hour and half walk. Up to the forest and back along the marsh. I saw a flock of large deer in the woods. Some with antlers. They melted out of sight before I could get close enough. Almost no sign of life on the marsh pond. Only a couple of panicking coots rapidly going away from me. I had no time to react. Not even to zoom. [Both images cropped for more scale.] These are two different coots, on similar tracks, running on the water from the cover of the reeds, on the near bank.

Then I spotted three small deer up ahead. They were grazing on the edge of the prairie. This was just before I reached the road again. The wind was in my face. So I kept going. Trying to get near enough for a decent image. One deer looked up and they were gone in an instant! 

A large, but distant, bird of prey [probably a Red kite] remained too far away for a worthwhile photograph. The dark woods behind it didn't help the cause. I had the 50-200mm Leica lens on the Lumix G9 instead of my usual 100-400mm "wildlife" lens. It has reached a balmy 45F at 11.00am. Big cumulus clouds crossing now.

~~