It’s Adrian Lea’s turn to summarise the week’s photos and another difficult choice with so many excellent shots to review. Here’s his take on the week.

“Is it just me, or does January seem endless? Fortunately our birding photographers have been able to take advantage of some excellent sunny intervals. The week started with an almost complete bias towards waterbirds and some lovely Pacific Diver shots at Roskilly/Penlee by N Rogers, Steve Rogers and N Dave and a Black-necked Grebe at Helford by S Wood.

Tuesday delivered some pin-sharp images from the lenses of Martin Webb and Vic Booth (I particularly liked the male Great Spotted Woodpecker), while Steve Ford managed to track down one of the Mounts Bay Pacific Divers.

On Wednesday Beverley Crowell provided a great Kestrel image, while Tony Mills managed to capture a Little Gull at Hayle, Phil Taylor provided a lovely Little Grebe image courtesy of Drift Reservoir and Paul Davies graced us with some excellent flight shots of Shelduck and Wigeon from Walmsley.

The Iceland Gull at Newlyn attracted the lenses of Tony Mills and Mark James on Thursday, with Steve Cox adding some excellent images to the Helston Lesser Scaup portfolio while Nick Watmough provided some great ID images of an Eastern Lesser Whitethroat at Redruth.

On Friday John St Ledger was tempted by the White Stork at Trenwheal while Derek Spooner submitted images of an apparently over-ambitious Cormorant attempting to consume an uncooperative Plaice.

The crisp sunshine on Saturday certainly brought a welcome relief and allowed Gill Fisher to beautifully capture a soaring Fulmar at Hell’s Mouth while I also loved the Shoveler in flight at Helston by Mark James – and the gorgeous male Black Redstart at The Knavocks by James Savage.

The favourable lighting continued on Sunday, allowing Gavin Williams to provide a classic shot of a Pintail at Walmsley while Rupert Kirkwood’s Sanderling in flight image taken at Hayle made a great photo of the (Sun)day.

My choice for photo of the week this week is between the Pacific Diver at Roskilly by Steve Rogers and the Iceland Gull at Newlyn by Mark James and Tony Mills, on balance I think the Pacific Diver takes the prize.
Many thanks once again to everyone who has taken the time to submit sighting reports and photographs to our sightings team, it really is greatly appreciated.” 

Many thanks Adrian and congratulations Steve for picking up your first Photo of the Week this year… I’m sure there will be more to come!