Scozmo's Photery

I guess I ought to start with, it’s been a while! Since I’ve been up to Backwater reservoir that is. I checked back through the images awaiting edit and it was October 27th! That might give you some idea of the dreich weather we’ve been having. OK that’s not all that prevented me going up but a fair part of it and today, December 15th, the sun shone, kind of! 🙂 SO I decided it was high time I went back up for a walk and to check the water level, last time I was there it wasn’t good.

There were already five cars in the car park, that’s a throng to me AND it was FREEZING. Relatively speaking of course. I had layers on, hat, gloves etc. so off I went.

I only actually met two pairs of people out with their dogs so it wasn’t that busy but boy was it quiet in bird terms, no real surprise given the temperature and the dull sky.

I got all the way to the top, for me without really seeing anything apart from a very distant Kestrel on the lookout up on the hillside.

I had walked all the way up to the top of a hill that overlooks the top end which is now totally dry and stood just looking around, taking in the views and the silence. Oh, apart from the guy in a tree-felling machine somewhere on the hillside.

The marker on the shot above is approximately where I was standing when I had my encounter. Just about all of the blue area in that shot, is now mud. Anyway, I stood staring around me when I spotted something in a tree farther up the reservoir. Binoculars out.

A White-tailed Eagle, high on a pine top, gazing around, no doubt looking for a snack so, camera out and start walking. Take a few shots, move forward, it won’t notice me sneaking closer, right? Hah! It’s an Eagle, I’m sitting here laughing at myself but it is still how I thought of it at the time. 🙂

There’s a buzz with a sighting like this, especially after such a dull walk to this point.

You can tell by the camera angle, the changing background that I was moving, trying to use the background to highlight the bird and get closer of course.

I did shoot a short video clip, handheld means it isn’t great but it was good to watch the bird’s actions, they always look grumpy to me 🙂

The whole encounter only lasted 5 minutes, including my walk towards it.

I tend to try to leave the shots uncrossed to allow reality, how far I actually was from the bird, the 180-600mm lens at full stretch but, you can tell, some shots I crop in to show the bird better.

OK, I cheated in a couple of shots, you may have noticed that the sky was bland and grey so I added some Photoshop colour, not something I normally do but, why not? Just this once 😉

Too close. It headed farther away 😦 but not too far.

I clambered over a gate and followed a track into the now sparse trees. There’s logging going on here at the moment.

Anyway, the trees will hide me from the bird right?

Once again, it took off but this time flew right by me!

It was flying beyond the few trees there are here so I was moving and grabbing clear chances when I could. It flew back around where I had come from, attempted a landing in some trees there but I guess they couldn’t support its weight or were too exposed so, It disappeared over the hillside.

I’d love to say into the sunset but, not quite. That is the real sky by the way 🙂

I’d like to add some phone shots of the reservoir itself for your references.

Right at the start of my walk, I grabbed a few shots to stitch into a panorama from the dam itself. The water level on the tower is 27, assume Metres!

Around the same time, looking along the face of the dam, the water is pretty low but, I think it’s probably around the same as October.

Looking down at the water you can see the mud and the height of the shoreline out of the water. I had never seen the continuation of the field boundaries before, you can just see the walls in the mud.

Now looking back down the water towards the dam.

On my return walk, after the Eagle encounter, I spotted what looks like the remains of a lane in the mud!

The walk back down was totally uneventful but enjoyable.

I have reported the Eagle sighting to those that manage bird rings and tags, hopefully I can find out more about it but, I have a feeling it is one of the birds I saw way back in September 2024, I’ve added this link if you want to see that fabulous, closer encounter 🙂