Popped to Pitsford 2

I decided to get up early and get an hour at the fringes of Pitsford before work this morning, and below are the results. I'm still trying to learn and understand aperture, light, exposure, film speed, etc so not entirely satisfying but things are (very slowly) improving.

You'll see I decided to focus on drake Scaup in Holcot Bay:






























It's interesting how the differing aspects of the post-dawn light affected the photographs, taken at ISO's 200-800 at 840x pushed one stop (+1/3). Some of the above could possibly have done with the push down one stop to take some of the bleaching out?















The Scaup does seem to spend most of its time associating with a small group of Tufted ducks:





























Other birds including this pair of Goldeneye, mating on the water. I wonder if she'll migrate whilst pregnant of if they'll stay local?














A mostly-obscured Great Tit wing-stretching before he flew to the top of the bush to start singing:















A female Pochard, having a scratch:













Finally probably the best two pictures, in respect of what I was trying to achieve, working with the ever-changing light, that is to pick out the back markings on the duck and to keep the eye (mostly) in focus: