Author: martintayler

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I know its not terribly exciting writing about my walks in Eastville Park again but I’m always excited about seeing a kingfisher. I don’t quite know what it is but it always lifts my spirits.

Today I saw both a male (on the lake) and a female (on the river). I so enjoyed seeing them that I found myself watching them rather than taking photos.

Female kingfisher

Make kingfisher

Two visiting birders (who had made the trip from Yatton by train) reciprocated my showing them a kingfisher by pointing out to me a goldcrest: I didn’t, however, manage to take a very good photo of it. I also enjoyed putting a face to Trevor and Mark (whose names I have seen on reports to Avon Bird Blog) and chatting to them.

Goldcrest (rather poor photo I know)

I was pleased that other passers-by (who had seen my photos on the Facebook page of The Friends of Eastville Park) stopped to introduce themselves. I also spent time talking to two other photographers (Steve and Dani) and hence the reason for not too many photos today.

Grey heron

Robin

Magpie

 

 

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We were popping in to town but we couldn’t resist stopping at Eastville Park for a walk around the lake.

A robin greeted us at the entrance to the park

The lake looked no more frozen over than a few days ago even though we had another heavy frost last night.

The park was very quiet but there were a few photographers drawn by the ubiquitous kingfisher. We weren’t disappointed and saw it flitting around the (appropriately named) Kingfisher Island. It was rather gloomy and so I put my energies into trying to capture her in flight

Even the swans were placid.

 

 

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I don’t seem to have time to venture far at the moment so I am very pleased to be able to go for a quick walk around my local park and see some wildlife.

After a heavy frost last night a large part of the lake was frozen. I do feel sorry for the birds when it freezes over but the gulls seemed quite happy standing on the ice and the fish must get some respite.

Black-headed gull on ice

A female kingfisher was very active on the lake and, although the light was poor, I tried to capture her in flight (with limited success).

Right profile

Left profile

Grey heron reflecting

One swan was again being very aggressive and assaulted another one.

Ice breaker

Common assault on the lake – ouch

There was a dipper on the River Frome but it seemed very reluctant to try its chances at feeding below the water in the fast flowing river.

Dipper

 

 

Another enjoyable walk around the park this morning. Colder than previous visits  especially by the lake.

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The female kingfisher was there  …

… and then she was gone.

3 mute swans flew down the lake and three stayed behind at the other end.

The tawny owl doesn’t really want to be seen

3 grey herons on the lake

This one was disturbed by the mute swans

We saw two robins and heard many more

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I set off on my walk around Eastville Park this morning full of optimism as the sun was shining and I was confident of taking some reasonable photographs. I wasn’t really disappointed in the end as there was lots to photograph but I hadn’t counted on the lake  still being in the shade: just a bit more editing to do.

I saw a kingfisher in three different places but I think it was always the same female.  There was lots of activity from seven cormorants (four of whom I saw fishing on the lake) and there was a female goosander and three grey herons. There must be a huge stock of fish.

The tawny owl could be seen clearly (at least she was in the sun). I tried photographing the black-headed gulls in flight but there really wasn’t enough light. Good fun trying though. It was the same thing with a crow bathing in the River Frome.

The best thing about it being a sunny day was there were lots of people about, many of them stopped to talk, and they all had a smile on their face.

 

N

Perhaps I was foolish to take my camera out on such a dismal afternoon but you can’t give in, can you?

I realised early on that the light wasn’t good enough to capture much in the way of bird photographs but I enjoyed seeing a kingfisher, 2 grey herons and 2 cormorants on the lake, a cormorant on the River Frome and a dipper and a grey wagtail on Fishponds Brook.

As the rain came down I limited my use of my camera and with my phone tried to capture a little of the colour which remains in the park.

I was drenched by the time I reached home but my spirits had been lifted by my walk in the park and I had fun editing my photos.

 

 

 

 

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Yet another dull and dreary day so we settled on the safe bet of Slimbridge Wetlands Centre in Gloucestershire where there’s always a chance of seeing something and where we knew we could keep fairly dry by visiting the numerous hides. We also wanted to see what the newly opened Estuary Tower hide was like.

Golden plovers and lapwings (I think) were the first flocks we saw

In the end it only rained on the journey there. However, the weather was so  miserably dull that we didn’t spend long at the centre and headed home pleased that we had had some fresh air and had stretched our legs a little. We did visit the Estuary Tower hide which was most impressive with excellent access and very good views across the estuary (that is if it’s clear enough to see anything).

Despite the excellence of the  Estuary Tower hide we weren’t going to see much in this light

The highlight of our visit was a water rail which was close enough for me to get some decent photos.

Water rail

Not a great day for photographing wildfowl but I was pleased to see one of my favourites – pintails.

Pintails

Greylag goose

I also took the opportunity to photograph some small birds at close quarters.

Blue tit

Blue tit

House sparrow

Blue tit

Robin

Wren

Can’t wait for the sun to come back!

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The park had a very different feel from when the sun was shining at the beginning of the week. However, even though it started raining before the end of our walk (and I had to tuck my camera away), there was plenty to see.  There was a dipper and a grey wagtail (both looking rather forlorn) on the River Frome. On the lake the drake goosander was visible again. There were three cormorants in the trees over the lake and one fishing on the lake. A juvenile grey heron on the lily ponds looked as though it could do with a good meal. The six mute swans were quite grumpy, sometimes with each other and sometimes with any mallard that came too close. I suppose it must have been the weather.

Mute swan busking – (a mild  form of threat display)

This morning it was very cold and gloomy in the park. What a difference a couple of days make! On Monday I took more photos than I would care to admit. Today I didn’t take my camera out of my bag until just before leaving the lake when I saw a couple of goldcrests fidgeting in the branches and four long-tailed tits darting around them.

With the firecrest, the goldcrest is the UK’s smallest bird but a real treat to see. The photo I offer here is not what I saw with my eyes but a greatly enhanced image due to the magic of Sony (camera) and Adobe (software).

Today on the lake I could see only one grey heron and a couple of cormorants. I could see no kingfishers, neither the drake goosander nor the little grebe. But on the other hand I didn’t stand around for long looking.

Goldcrest in the gloom of Eastville Park

 

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It was such a glorious morning that I indulged myself and spent several hours birdwatching/taking photos at Eastville Park. I suppose the main reason for spending so long (and not walking a little further) was that I had several sightings of a kingfisher but didn’t manage to get a photo until quite late on. And then it stayed around for ages and I ended up with far too many photos. It’s amazing though how different its colours seem when perched in different parts of the lake. It’s all physics!

The other reason for staying was that there was a drake goosander on the lake and it took ages to move in to a sunny enough spot for me to get a decent photo.

But there was also plenty to distract me with lots of grey herons (at least 8), cormorants, a little grebe, 6 mute swans (the most I have ever seen there in recent years) and a tawny owl.

Grey herons everywhere

6 mute swans on the lake too

Plenty of cormorants too

I couldn’t see the head of the tawny owl

A sweet little grebe

And when I wasn’t taking birds I resorted to using my phone to take photos of the lovely colours still remaining in the trees.

 

 

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After a week of gloomy and very wet weather I jumped at the chance to take a short walk to Stoke Park this morning. It was lovely and sunny and so I took a 28mm lens to try and take some landscape photos.

However, on arrival at Duchess Pond I saw a sparrowhawk fly in and land in the pond quite close by.  In a panic I quickly swapped my lens for a much longer one. At first I failed to change the settings from those for landscapes and failed to get any decent shots as the sparrowhawk flew off when disturbed by crows. Luckily it came back for a further bath by which time I had sorted out my settings and got some very pleasing results.

I had a quick walk around the lake and took some photos of a cormorant and coots, moorhens and mallards in the beautiful sunshine. But by then I just wanted to get home to edit my sparrowhawk photos. Wonderful.

Today we were going in to town for lunch but stopped off at Eastville Park for a quick walk around the lake where we saw a goldcrest, several long-tailed tits, a tawny owl, 2 grey herons, half a dozen cormorants and 5 mute swans (the most for some time). It wasn’t  great light but good for the record.

 

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Gold crest

Long-tailed tit

Tawny owl

Cormorant

Mute swan seemingly seeing off a newcomer

To make our lunch really worthwhile we headed for Brandon Hill in the centre of the city for another walk (we were anticipating a good lunch) where I had the opportunity for a few more nature photos. We saw another gold crest (no photo sadly). The stars of the show for me were the squirrels.

 

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The lunch (littlefrench_bristol in Westbury Park) felt well earned and was well up to our expectations.

We treated ourselves to a lovely bottle of Chinon (just for the memories) and had a great chat with our taxi driver on the way home!