I don’t seem to go very far afield at the moment but it was great to get out this morning having been housebound all day yesterday with continuous rain; and what a lovely morning it was.

My special helper spotted a dipper straightaway on the stream that runs down in to the River Frome. The photos are a bit grainy as it was very dark there.

We took a while to spot a kingfisher but there was a great spectacle as it dived right in front of us a caught such a large fish that it had to find a suitable spot in the trees to be able to club it to death before devouring it. We saw the kingfisher again later on but no great opportunity for photos.

The best I could get of the kingfisher and its large lunch

Even the goosanders took a while to spot (2 males and 2 females).

There was a group of 4 grey herons, a flock of 8 long-tailed tits, a grey wagtail and 8 cormorants  and a robin around the lake as well as lots of black-headed gulls and one lesser black-backed gull.

Lesser black-backed gull

A very satisfying morning.

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning: