Carter family: Lens envy continued

A few months ago I spoke about a visit to Minsmere a nature reserve where the size of the camera lenses and viewing equipment was only rivalled by the paparazzi! Trev got lens envy so for his birthday he got a spotting scope. It's basically a kick ass monocular. He did the research as I would never presume to buy a gadget for him. However the first weekend he had it we went to Yorkshire to meet up with Sue and as is the wont of that county it rained the whole time we were there.

Wet walk

Wet Haworth
It was shrouded in romantic mist for the entire time. However on the way home we managed to escape the cloud cover and we stopped at a stately home where he could study the deer in the distance.

Trev with new toy

This weekend the weather was beautiful. So we went to Welney Wash which is in the fens. It is owned by the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust and every winter thousands of Bewick and Whooper swans over winter there. Not all had arrived but there were a good few so we walked between various hides and peered through our lenses.
It was a very freindly bunch we met in the hides. Quite often bird watchers are bordering on Asperger's but the people we met were mostly smiley and shared information. However lens envy hasn't totally disappeared. There were a couple with impressive equipment who spotted a crane ( I didn't actually know there were cranes in the UK). They told everyone where to look and then let us look through there spotting scope. When I discussed this with Trev afterwards he was of the opinion that they were showing off the size of their lens!! (Could be true actually).