We finally made it out to one of the local wildlife spots that we've been meaning to get to for a while now. It's the local reservoir near the village of Ardingly, and while most of the water is taken up with boating activities it is – naturally – also a good spot for wildlife. There are kingfishers in the vicinity (we didn't see any), but the visit did have its highlights with some of the larger water birds.
View of Ardingly Reservoir
The pick of the birds were the herons. We saw several, including this sculptural vision sitting on the top of the stone causeway that marks one end of water. 
We watched that one for a quite while before deciding that the chances of it moving more than a few feet were somewhat remote. It did give an opportunity to get rather closer to the swans (there were four of them), and to watch the very pretty great crested grebes (adult and juvenile).
Having seen one heron at a distance the next encounter was rather closer. 
That was taken from the path but the next sequence was from one of the bird hides.
Other sightings included ducks (of course), a flock of canada geese, cormorants (much reviled by the anglers who can't compete with them!) plus some small waders (but too far off for proper identification).
Back in the garden, the trail cam caught something of a first last night… a badger and a fox in the same clip. Good to see much less evidence of a limp on the badger. Stumpy is still his usual nervous self.
Camera note: Apart from the first shot (which was taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens), everything was photographed with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM.
gdare
20 Aug 2009Ardingly Reservoir looks like a lake :left:
Heron drying feathers is star of the day :up:
annoushkiss
20 Aug 2009So lovely place is that Reservoir! So different birds inhabit it. 🙂
The badger seems to rule the party LOL! :up:
SittingFox
20 Aug 2009That first heron is behaving as though it thinks it is a cormorant!
No blame to Stumpy; I wouldn't argue with a badger either!
Words
20 Aug 2009Anna, oh yes the badger rules the garden.
Words
20 Aug 2009Adele, the heron just seemed to be trying to cool down, though why it didn't hop into the water I don't know. It just stood there baking in the sun. Stumpy may be battered, but obviously a survivor.
Words
20 Aug 2009Darko, yes I really enjoyed watching the heron on the wall, but it was difficult to get closer.
Ukwildlife
21 Aug 2009nice photos – I love the heron sunbathing 🙂
Words
21 Aug 2009Neil, thanks. At times it looked as though it were carved out of the stone.
Flying Red Fox Blog
21 Aug 2009Very nice and the video is good too, 😀
Words
21 Aug 2009Mark, thanks. It was a good day out and nice to get the fox and badger together