Pilling Whoopers

There has been a taste of winter recently with a dusting of snow on the fell tops and icy and frosty mornings.For a while now there has been a flock of well over one hundred whooper swans at Eagland Hill,Pilling. I decided therefore to try and capture some images of these winter visitors.I had a couple of brief afternoon visits when the light was at its best.All the images were taken from the comfort of the car and I was hoping to capture the birds in flight as they went to roost. The swans were feeding on the remains of a potato crop which was lying all over the very wet and muddy field.

From about 2pm some of the swans decided to leave and gave me the opportunity to grab some flight shots. I decided to leave around 3pm and on the way back home I had a very brief view of a barn owl. I had not seen any barn owls for a long time. I understand they have had an excellent breeding season in the Pilling and Cockerham area.I will certainly be back again to hopefully obtain more images of  these very special birds.This could be my last posting before Christmas and if so may I wish all my followers a very happy festive season.Thanks for looking in.