Male Party Crasher

As the car headlights swept across the white snowy moor this morning after a more than two hour drive, they picked out the nearly almost familiar landscape on the deserted moor last seen 2 years ago. 

Dropping the window in the black night and grabbing my flask of coffee I knew I was in the right place as carrying in the air were the almost bubbling calls of the black grouse males. The light turned blue and I could vaguely see the black shapes squaring up to each other against the snow which normally wouldn't be possible. 

A red list endangered species the black grouse are found high up here in North Wales and in spring the males gather at traditional sites known as leks to compete for dominance. A male party in fact.

Car lights finally turned off after me trying every menu on the dashboard. I just couldn't get black anonymity and had to resort to putting my lens bag over the entire dashboard display! No I'm not joking and I was panicking with it as it appeared like there were lights everywhere and no more menus to go through. The car does have a mind of it's own and at one point I'd got my 500mm lens sticking on a bean bag on the window frame and was taking a few with another lens when it decided to close the window and open it and close it and open it!  Oh and the lights came on too!!! The car parked behind stayed calm fortunately. I must have been the birder from hell. 

As the night lifted the birds seemed to have very much the same territories as before and my better shots are when the sun briefly came out as distance and camera speed were a problem. 

All in all a great day though for many reasons. I had to smile that on my phone on the Gloucestershire App it said there were changes in my area. Seriously I thought, 'Too right! I'm not in it today!' and that is why I think I'll feel better getting out and about doing  'stuff'. There are so  many people close to me to think about and I haven't a magic wand to make everything better - I wish I had.