Category: Blog

 

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I started my walk this morning in Stoke Park. It is very wet underfoot but by wading through the very deep puddles surrounding the area of reeds I did get good views of a male and female stonechat.

Stonechat

As I walked around Duchess Pond a grey heron took off and presented me with another great opportunity to photograph it in flight.

I didn’t see much else so walked across to Eastville Park on the other side of the M32.

The first bird to greet me here was a cheery robin.

On the lake there were 4 more grey herons.

There were also 4 mute swans on the lake. However, the most exciting birds for me were a little grebe and a teal (the first one I have seen here).

Little grebe

Teal

I could also just see the tawny owl in its box on the island.

Tawny owl

There are lots of black-headed gulls on the lake and lots of corvids around it.

Black headed gull

Magpie

Crow

Before I left a cormorant flew in and posed on a nearby branch.

Both profiles of the cormorant

 

 

 

 

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We always enjoy visiting Dyrham Park at this time of the year as the trees look glorious and there’s always a chance to see one of nature’s spectacular sights with the deer rutting. The stags were rounding up their hinds but we didn’t see any locking of horns. Maybe worth another trip later this week if the weather holds.

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This lovely part of Bristol is well known to many motorists as they head in to or out of the city on the M32 but how many of them know its real beauty? The noise they cause does spoil it a little but if you bother to walk through this ancient parkland you will be sure to see some of the beauties that I see regularly on my walks from home.

Wellies are definitely the order of the day

It was glorious this morning, if a little wet underfoot, and I was treated to one of my favourite birds, a little grebe, which I don’t see that often here.

Little grebe

Before the sun broke through I saw a pair of wrens and a grey heron. Once the sun came out I didn’t bother going much further than Duchess Pond where I enjoyed watching the little grebe and the regular moorhens and coots. The landscapes were pretty special too.

Wren

Grey heron

Moorhen treading lightly on the lilies

Coot

 

 

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Having watched and enjoyed 3 games of rugby within 24 hours (Bristol Bears v Bath live, England v Australia and Ireland v New Zealand on television) I needed to stretch my legs a little and wandered over to Stoke Park.

It was very warm in the sun and I was lucky to see a pair of stonechats. I also managed a photo of a robin and had a fleeting sight of a green woodpecker. I didn’t stay long as the sky was threatening a heavy shower.

Male stonechat

Female stonechat

European robin

There are still dragonflies around – here a common darter

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Another dry day and so we made the most of it by crossing the Severn Estuary and visiting the Forest of Dean. Not that I had a lot of luck with birds except I took my first ever photo of a goldcrest (even if it was a rather poor photo). At the same pool there was a tree creeper, a coal tit and a great tit bathing. We had a pleasant walk and a rather nice cream tea before heading home.

Treecreeper (easier to see in the pool rather than against the bark of a tree)

Coal tit

Goldcrest

Goldcrest

 

 

 

 

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The rain stopped for a while and we had a walk to our local park. We didn’t see many birds except for three grey herons and at least half a dozen cormorants around the lake. Probably not enough for a blog but as I haven’t taken many bird photographs for some time I was pleased at least to get something to publish.

 

We had a last minute opportunity to go out birding this afternoon and so, not to waste time planning, we plumped for WWT Slimbridge where we can generally count on seeing something interesting.

The first few hides didn’t produce anything very special (teal, lapwings and lots of greylag geese) but there was some excitement about a snipe which, however, was very difficult to see (with its head tucked in to its body).

Well camouflaged snipe

Teal

Lapwing

We then wandered through the captive watefowl where I took a few photos and we made our way to the Zeiss Hide.

Here we were richly rewarded as a crane flew right in front of us: this huge graceful bird made a very dramatic appearance and circled around before landing. I was busy trying to photograph it when spectacularly two more flew in front of us. We couldn’t believe our eyes when yet another two appeared.

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They remained for a very short while before flying off over the reed beds towards the Severn estuary.

From the same hide we could also see more lapwing, a grey heron, redshank, several snipe and a greenshank (too far away for a photo).

Snipe

Redshank

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A few of my favourite captive wildfowl.

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The beautiful weather lasted all day and so we ventured out for another walk in the afternoon to Eastville Park. Still more dragonflies. The best of the birds was a grey wagtail which performed right in front of our eyes on the lake. Lots of good photos but I couldn’t quite manage to capture the beauty of its flight as it darted off its perch in search of insects above the lake – but I had a good try.

I really liked this moorhen too but didn’t see the little grebe others had reported.

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I haven’t had much opportunity to take nature photos recently and so I particularly enjoyed getting out to my local parks this morning (Stoke Park) and this afternoon (Eastville Park).

Here are some of my photos from this morning featuring a juvenile female reed bunting, a grey heron in flight and lots of dragonflies. This afternoon’s walk will follow in a separate blog.

 

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We felt the need to get away from the city today and where better to go than to the seaside? Weymouth, on the south coast. is only 70 odd miles from Bristol (although not the easiest of roads to travel on) and has a couple of lovely nature reserves.

Our first visit was to RSPB Lodmore but we didn’t stay long as, after a couple of hours of driving, we needed to find some toilets.

Little egret at Lodmore

Nearby RSPB Radipole Lakes is right in Weymouth and has a visitors’ centre and toilets adjacent. We were quite pleased to see some butterflies and dragonflies and then overjoyed to hear and then see bearded tits (or bearded reedlings as they are often now referred to) – one of our favourite birds. They were only there for seconds and then gone, but long enough for us to see them in binoculars and capture with the camera.

We moved on to Portland Bill for lunch but didn’t have much luck with birds other than a kestrel.

Chesil beach

We were then going to vist the swannery at Abbotsbury but the entrance fee was quite stiff and, as the weather had deteriorated, we didn’t think it was worth it on this occasion.  We then tried to find somewhere to have a cup of tea and a cake on the way home but, being England, all the cafés were closed by 4.30 pm. Never mind, a lovely day anyway.

Abbotsbury Castle

Pheasants enjoying the evening sun

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There were a couple of redshank on the shore when I arrived and I was feeling optimistic as the light was good. However, as I walked out along the the coastal path I could see very few birds on Northwick Warth and had difficulty picking out what was on the Pilning Wetlands.  I spent a little while trying to take photos of House Martins and was distracted by a distant buzzard.

House martin

Buzzard

Northwick Warth

I could see in the distance on the wetlands the great white egret, a couple of little egrets and a grey heron but all too far away for photos.

On my way back there were a couple of meadow pipits within reach.

Meadow pipit

As I reached the first pill box (there used to be a firing range here at Pilning) I met a group of birders and had a very enjoyable time chatting to them. Some of them had telescopes and were very generous in showing me a couple of curlew sandpipers. They were among a large mixed flock of ringed plovers, dunlin and turnstones but all really too far away for me to photograph (but it didn’t stop me trying!).

Dunlin

Turnstone

Starling

Ringed plover

I had a little bit of time to kill before going home to watch the Test match and so stopped at Aust Warth where I saw a kestrel.

Kestrel

Kestrel

Kestrel

 

 

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Only chance for a short walk around Stoke Park Estate this afternoon as I spent the morning playing golf. I probably saw more birds on the golf course than in the park but I managed a few photos and hence my blog.

The juvenile green woodpecker was particularly difficult to photograph as it was continuously in the shade and its colours are not as vivid as the adults.

The grey heron moved often around the pond and so I had a few chances of photographing it in flight.

The juvenile coots were very noisy.