Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos

Category: Blog

  • 29th September 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    29th September 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    What an amazing summer! It seems to go on and on. Statistically I have seen it has been the best ever in the UK; better than even the summer of 1976 which, as I was in my late 20s and enjoying a great summer of sport, was for me the best before this one.

    What a treat too to be able to go off birding on a Monday morning following a great weekend of sport (now sadly only as a spectator) with success for England in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final, a trip to see Bristol Bears gain a good win over Leicester Tigers in the first match of a new season, Arsenal sneaking a win in the dying moments of their game and the success of the European team in the Ryder Cup golf. This morning was just as good though.

    We saw so much and in such wonderful light (so no complaining from me except that I still failed to capture two common cranes flying right in front of me – ineptitude on my part). The best was clearly seeing the very secretive great bittern but it was all quite a joy and we enjoyed our trip to Slimbridge so much that we stayed much longer than usual and had a very late lunch there too.

    Great bittern

    Great bittern

    Apologies to all who were hard at work on a Monday morning: in my defence I did 47 years of those.

    Some of my photos:

    Ruff

    Common redshank

    Little egret

    Northern lapwing

    Eurasian teal

    Green sandpiper

    Green sandpiper with greylag goose (for size comparison)

    Green sandpiper with mallard

    Lots of geese and a handful of common crane on the Severn Estuary

    Eurasian wigeon

    Eurasian wigeon close up

    Common snipe

    Common snipe

    Common snipe

    Common snipe and green sandpiper

    Black-tailed godwit

    Black-tailed godwit

    Great bittern

    Great bittern

    Grey heron

    Common darter (for Mike in the USA) still around

    Some of the other activities at WWT Slimbridge:

    The visitors centre at WWT Slimbridge

    Trees of life in the remembrance garden

    Never forgotten

    Duck decoy

    I don’t suppose Sir Pater Scott would have minded.

  • 25th September 2025 – Stoke Park Estate, Bristol

    25th September 2025 – Stoke Park Estate, Bristol

    Encouraged by my visit earlier in the week (and the blue skies) I decided to give Stoke Park another go this morning.

    Just a short distance from my home, as I pass beneath the motorway to reach the park, I am reminded by the graffiti (and the noise from the motorway) that this is still a very urban area.

    The graffiti and the noise of the motorway remind you how close we are to the city centre

    However, it’s well worth putting up with the inconveniences.


    On the sky line there were 3 ravens and a common buzzed.

    Common buzzard

    The jay was still around but much further away.
    Grey heron again at Duchess Pond

    … and again on the annex pond

    Common chiffchaff shows itself briefly

    A meadow pipit in the same tree
    Meadow pipit in flight

    Long=tailed tit (I counted 14 in this social group)

    Long-tailed tit in flight

    By the time I was about to go it was getting warmer and dragonflies began to appear.

    Common darter

  • 23rd September 2025 – Stoke Park Estate, Bristol

    23rd September 2025 – Stoke Park Estate, Bristol

    It was definitely fresher this morning on my walk to the local park.

    The annex to the main pond with the telecommunications tower on the hill at the back

    The view away from Duchess Pond with the Dower House on the hill

    My highlight was a jay, but I loved watching a sparrow hawk and a pair of buzzards testing each other out.

    Jay

    Jay in flight in front of Lady Elizabeth Somerset’s obelisk

    Jay in flight – down beat
    Jay in flight – up beat

    Lady Elizabeth Somerset’s obelisk overlooking the whole park, the obelisk was erected in 1762. It was built by Thomas Paty. It bears a Latin inscription to the Duke of Beaufort’s niece, whose death it commemorates. She died when she fell from her horse here. It is listed Grade II

    View from close to the monument
    A delight for walkers and runners
    Sparrowhawk

    One of two common buzzards

    The autumn colours are beginning to show and the berries on the trees look as though there will be plenty of food for many of the birds this winter.

    The trees on the island beginning to show some colours of autumn

    On Duchess Pond I briefly saw a little grebe (so cute but sadly no photograph) and as well as the mallards, coots and moorhens there was a grey heron and a tufted duck.

    Grey heron flying over Duchess Pond

    Grey heron landing next to the annex pond

    Cattle looking enviously at the Duchess Pond

    Moorhen straddling the lilies on Duchess Pond
    Tufted duck on Duchess Pond

    Moorhen and reflection

    There are so many wood pigeons around at the moment

    Small white butterfly and bindweed

    Around the pond there were coal tits, greenfinch, goldfinch and chiffchaff but there is still too much cover for photographs.

    I just can’t resist a few more photos of the jay:

  • 19th September 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    19th September 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    What a surprise! Just as we seemed to be moving into autumn we get a late summer’s day. The French call it l’ėtė de la St Martin and we call it an Indian summer, but I’m probably getting carried away as St Martin’s Day isn’t until the 11th November. Anyway it reached 22 degrees in sunny Gloucestershire and, although I was wearing a T-shirt, I wished I was in shorts.

    Slimbridge seemed to be moving on. There were flocks of greylag geese and quite a number of Canada geese too. From our favourite hide there were loads of bar-tailed godwits which were nice to see but difficult to photograph as there didn’t seem to be a focal point. A redshank amidst the group helped a little and then when they scattered from the threat of a peregrine it was easier to pick a focal point. There were some ruff too but very far off. Common snipe are some of our favourite birds but they were quite coy too.

    The highlight of the day was a male grey phalarope (not as attractive as the female) but miles away so don’t hold your breath for any great images.

    A brimstone greeted us on arrival

    There were several big groups of black-tailed godwits like this

    What a beauty – a black swan, certainly no ugly duckling

    Sloes from a blackthorn – think lots of gin!

    Common snipe being very coy

    Black-tailed godwit

    Ruff at the back of the pool

    Lapwings are always present here

    Redshank amongst the godwits

    Redshank jumping for joy

    Godwits take to the air

    Can you spot the grey phalarope? Bang in the middle of my photo with a 400 mm lens and heavily cropped. It looked just as tiny with a x60 telescope. Oh the joys of birding!

    We loved the textiles exhibition too:

  • 8th September 2025 – Stoke Park Estate, Bristol

    8th September 2025 – Stoke Park Estate, Bristol

    Just time this morning for a stroll over to one of our local parks before the rain came.

    Duchess Pond in Stoke Park Estate

    There are still plenty of dragonflies around but I didn’t see much in the way of bird life except for a grey heron (and coots and moorhens) although redstarts have been reported recently.

    Common darter

    Migrant hawker

    Grey heron

    Grey heron

    Grey heron

    It’s a lovely spot but not as wonderful as it looks because it’s next to the motorway and very noisy.

    The grey heron didn’t seem to be affected by the noise

    Common darters

    The lily pads look wonderful at the moment

    The Dower House (now apartments) on the edge of the park

  • 29th August 2025 – Chew Valley Lake, Somerset

    29th August 2025 – Chew Valley Lake, Somerset

    A very popular bird watching area local to us is Chew Valley Lake, just a few miles to the south of Bristol. The lake was created in the early 1950s (officially opened in 1956) to provide water for the city of Bristol. I remember at that time standing in the street waving my Union Flag. I hasten to add that this was in no way a demonstration of political affiliation the likes of which we are currently seeing a lot, I was simply lining the street with my Junior School to see Queen Elizabeth II as she made her way to open the lake. That’s what you did for entertainment in those days.

    We last visited Chew Valley on May 16th when, even after a dry start to the summer, the lake was surprisingly full to the brim. We were quite surprised today to see how low the water had dropped over the summer in the very dry spell we have had. Today we had a few showers but I don’t think it would have made much a difference to the water levels.

    A distant view of Chew Valley lake (from Herriot’s Bridge) with a chance of rain

    Our main reason for visiting, in fact, is that a white-tailed eagle has been at the lake for the last few days. We had no luck on that score and, as a consequence of the low water levels, we didn’t see that many birds up close.

    Nonetheless, we really enjoyed the scenery and enjoyed another day birding.

    The view from Stratford hide with a peregrine at 2 o’clock (in front of the reeds) and another at 8 o’clock (next to the tree stump)

    A sparrowhawk flying over Herriot’s Bridge.

    A hobby from Herriot’s Bridge

    The view from Herons’ Green – this was totally covered in water in May

    A glossy ibis from Herons’ Green and a greenshank to the left

    Little egrets at Herons’ Green Bay
    You can see how dry it is beneath the black-headed gull in flight

    A small copper butterfly and a painted lady butterfly at Herriot’s Bridge

    We were told the white-tailed eagle was on the island at the back of my photo – I know they are big as we have seen them in Scotland but I don’t think even a very good telescope would have helped

    At least we got to see some birds up close – here a cormorant at Herriot’s Bridge

    … and here an African Grey Parrot whose owner brings it here regularly to take the air – this is England after all!

  • 27th August 2025 – Severn Estuary

    27th August 2025 – Severn Estuary

    Today we had a walk along the Severn Estuary further south than WWT Slimbridge, which we have visited a lot recently, and closer to home. There is a section of the south west footpath between the two Severn Bridge crossings close to where the old Severn ferry used to operate at Aust and which is often a good place to view birds.

    The weather is beginning to break and we managed to do this walk between showers and were very lucky not to get wet. We had views of a variety of birds but most at some distance.

    The view across Aust Warth towards the first Severn Bridge.

    The view back across Aust Warth towards the second Severn Bridge (now known as the Prince of Wales Bridge)

    Good numbers of black headed gulls, oyster catchers, Canada geese and a few curlews on the warth (the low lying area next to the sea)

    A better view of the oyster catchers

    There were still a few swallows around

    Swallow up close

    The village of Aust in the distance – it was from here that the ferry operated to take vehicles and passengers to Wales before the Severn bridges were built

    Gadwall on the pools (most of which are dried up at the moment) on the other side of the warth.

    A distant curlew in flight

    We caught up with the curlew at the end of our walk at New Passage

    Curlew

    Common redshank at New Passage

    Common redshank amongst the black headed gulls

    Shelduck on the mud flats

  • 25th August 2025 – Forest of Dean

    25th August 2025 – Forest of Dean

    We were looking for somewhere to go to avoid the crowds of Bank holiday Monday and hit on the Forest of Dean. It was certainly very peaceful and a great place to be on another very hot day.

    I thought we might do well with dragonflies but the pool near the car park at RSPB Nagshead was completely dried up.

    We didn’t have a lot of luck with birds either except at the Campbell hide, which had a muddy patch in front of it, we did see a few coal tits and 2 hawfinch. I have only seen hawfinch on a couple of occasions and it was a first for my wife. Good choice then.

    Forest of Dean – a good place to keep cool.

    Hawfinch

    Hawfinch hiding in the leaves

    Coal tit

  • 22nd August 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    22nd August 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    In praise of WWT Slimbridge

    When I was young my mum and dad, bless them, took me to Slimbridge a couple of times: I can’t say I was very impressed; I was more into team games and I would rather get muddy by diving around on the sports field than sloshing about in wellies. My parents obviously thought it a worthy thing to do but clearly I don’t think it was really in their DNA either and so, as it was fairly expensive, we didn’t go too often.

    I can’t believe how much we love going there now. I know we dodge the hordes of children (and their parents/grandparents) by heading for the hides (rather than the pens with lots of exotic birds) but I do recognise that Slimbridge is a fabulous place and does amazing work to get youngsters interested in wildlife.

    Sadly we see lots of bad parenting there but today we met a young boy (and his dad) as we were heading out to the Severn Estuary who stopped us and told us that if we continued on this pathway we could follow a walkway which took us down to the estuary where we might see, if we looked carefully, curlew and ringed plovers. We were both impressed that his dad didn’t interrupt him but allowed him to be our advisor. This young boy was thoroughly enjoying his day and clearly his dad had encouraged him enough to reach this point. It was a very refreshing encounter.

    Down on the estuary we clearly didn’t look carefully enough as we only heard a curlew and the ringed plovers were too far away for our “old” eyes.

    On the estuary we saw lots of egrets and grey herons.

    However, we did see loads whilst we were at Slimbridge. I hope you enjoy some of my photos from today.

    Probably my photo of the day, a Cetti’s warbler, if I am correct

    Reed warbler

    Reed warbler

    Sand Martin chasing fly (top right)

    Sand Martin about to gorge its prey

    Swallow

    Swallow

    Grey heron

    Honey bee

    Wasp

    Migrant hawker

    Common snipe

    Rock doves

    Common snipe

    Tufted duckling practising its diving

    The beauty of the Severn Estuary

  • 19th August 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    19th August 2025 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    A variety of waders at Slimbridge today.

    It was pleasantly warm but fairly dull for our morning visit. I have nothing to complain about though compared with the poor farmers who must be really struggling with this exceptionally dry spell in this part of the world. They have definitely something to complain about this year!

    Northern lapwing

    When you are struggling for light a goldfinch is a saviour

    Redshank and ruff unperturbed by a noisy coot

    Common redshank and ruff (right)

    Green sandpiper and a common snipe trying to blend in with the foliage

    Black-tailed godwit centre stage

    A skein of greylag geese overhead

    … and on the ground

    The green sandpiper breaks cover first

    Followed by the common snipe

    Black-tailed godwit in the centre with a ruff behind

    Definitely one of my favourite birds – the common snipe

  • 14th August 2025 – RHS Garden Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon

    14th August 2025 – RHS Garden Rosemoor, Torrington, Devon

    We managed to get to visit the RHS Garden Rosemoor near Great Torrington today.

    They were busy getting ready for their annual flower show which starts tomorrow. That and the dull weather meant that there were not too many people around, although more than my photos suggest – hoorah!

    Hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed the garden (in spite of a short rain shower).

  • 13th August 2025 – Stafford Barton Estate, Devon

    13th August 2025 – Stafford Barton Estate, Devon

    An evening stroll around the estate.

    We saw and heard a fair number of birds (common buzzard, carrion crow, goldfinches, gold crest, blue tit, chaffinch, stock dove, wood pigeon, great spotted woodpecker, house martins and swallows) but especially enjoyed the trees and shrubs.

    Goldfinches

    Swallow

    House Martin

    Swallow

    Meadow sweet

    There’s an insect in there among the grasses

    Great spotted woodpecker