Another trip to Moore Nature Reserve today - arriving at 8.00am and leaving at 7.00pm. More little-brown-jobbies than I could shake a tripod at.

Out of the corner of my eye a caught a glimpse of two dark grey birds flying below me along the cliff face. As they flew closer I saw the moustaches and realised they were Peregrine Falcons.

Light was always going to be in short supply today - the BBC forecast was for 'white cloud' all day. Now white cloud is good for photography generally - it results in evenly lit subjects without harsh shadows - but at this time of year there isn't much sunlight behind it to make it truly white; more of a muddy grey!

I like the Moore feeding station, as it's usually possible to get some nice images there. It's not quite on a par with the Bunting Hide at Pennington Flash, which is covered and keeps me dry if it rains, and has mush closer trees and shrubs. At the Moore station, I almost always fit my 1.4x extender to my 400mm lens.

I visited Inner Marsh Farm on the Dee Estuary once before - back in 2006 I think. I didn't have my camera with me at the time, but my memory of it was that it was a great reserve for spotting, but not for photography. However, I wanted to go back and take a second look.

The BBC weather forecast for the day stated that a huge black cloud would hang over virtually the whole of Wales all day and that the rain would be persistent and at times heavy.

Well, despite this, I decided I couldn't miss the opportunity. So armed with a huge flask of coffee and a packed lunch lovingly prepared by Lucia; off I went.

The first time it happened it took me by surprise. I assumed it was just a one-off, or a bird with some kind of mental disorder. However, when it happened three days in a row, I thought I would try to capture it on my old Nikon Coolpix.

I think bird photographers sit somewhere between two extremes.

• Photographer first, birder second.
• Birder first, photographer second.

Like most, you probably fit somewhere in-between the two extremes. Myself, I lean towards the first.

I returned to Pennington Flash on November 26 after my trip there the day before, as I understood it might snow and I might get some nice pictures of birds on snow-covered branches. As it turned out, it didn't snow, it was just very cold. I went with four hand-warmers, which I used in the first few hours, and my hands and feet were dead for most of the day.

Until September this year, I hadn't been out with my camera for a long time, due to pressure of work. In September I went to Moore Nature Reserve and to Lymm Dam, but didn't have much success, so on November 25 I decided to go to Pennington Flash and spend some time at the bird feeder station (Bunting Hide). I've always managed to get some decent shots there and I needed to get my eye in again.