Location Scouting

I've recently been thinking about taking more wildlife images, so I went out to have a look at a site near Basel. As I live in the middle of a city I have to leave it first, which sounds like it would take a long time, but I live in Switzerland and Swiss cities are relative to the size of the country. The site that I chose was a 15-minute drive away, a place called La Petite Camargue

As this was only a trip to look at the location, I wasn't going to post anything, but while I was sitting in one of the hides overlooking the lake, I saw something strange. It was a very long way away and at first, I thought that it was a swan because of the size; it wasn't. It was, in fact, a pelican, something that I wasn't expecting at all.

For some reason, I had trouble on the day with focusing and exposure and most of the images aren't as good as I'd like. There are a few possible reasons for this.

• I had a 1.5x extender on, so I was on manual focus, but this is usually okay.

• I was looking directly towards the light most of the time

• the light reflecting off of the water

• More on a personal side, but also likely. I think I may soon need glasses and the diopter adjustment could have been slightly off.

Whatever it was, I still liked the location very much and I will be returning. There were many different possibilities there. Next time I will go early in the morning or evening, as the light would be better.

Another creature that I didn't expect to see, although I knew that they are in the region was a coypu (nutria). It was happily swimming down a canal and didn't even seem to notice me at all.

As soon as I visit again, I will post the new pictures.