Avocets

I like Avocets. Other people don't. Yesterday at Minsmere, Darren coined the word 'chavocet' and I've also heard them referred to as ASBOcets (two modern British social phenomena for you).

These birds are meant to be ambassadors for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and yet they spend their time on one of the society's flagship reserves trying to peck each other into submission!

It's true they can be slightly antisocial in their protective behaviour, but you can hardly blame them for that.

Here are some photos of them bickering and fighting amongst each other, just like many human neighbours.









Here, the DSLR gave me more freedom to catch interesting behaviour, whereas with digiscoping, I have a much longer wait between frames and getting shots of any movement is very difficult.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, Extender EF 1.4x II