Category: Blog

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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!

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A filthy day yesterday but today a total change with lots of sunshine. However, we didn’t want to be ploughing through mud and so had a walk around the RSPB Newport Wetlands. The paths on the reserve may have been good but we didn’t see many birds. Never mind, at least there wasn’t too much editing to do.

The only bird worth recording was a robin.

Frustrated with the lack of birds I attempted a few views across the reserve – the power of Wales.

 

Locally we have had very mixed weather with frequent heavy rain and winds but at times there have been some sunny periods. On Thursday there was a window of opportunity for a walk around our local park. We didn’t see many birds but the trees still retained some of their leaves and I managed a few photos with my phone to show the glory of the park.

 

 

 

 

 

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After a day of heavy rain and strong winds yesterday, today it was dry and often sunny.  We visited the Wildlife and Wetland Trust centre at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire; we spent most of the time in the hides but enjoyed walking through the wetlands centre and seeing some of the more exotic wildfowl in the pens, especially as there was lots of sun to enjoy. My photographs are a mixture of captive and free birds.

Teal

Shelduck

Lapwing

Greylag goose

Mallard

Pochard

Golden eye (captive)

Moorhen

Wigeon

Crane

Avocet (captive)

Black-winged stilt (captive)

Redshank (captive)

Bewick swan – I presume resident as there were only three present

 

 

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Another dull day but as it’s half term it was good to avoid the crowds and have a walk around Eastville Park. I haven’t seen a kingfisher in the park for a while but with the benefit of half term we had some young eyes with us and one was spotted as soon as we reached the lake (O seems to manage to spot one every time we go here).

The trees were looking pretty good too; shame there was no sun to make it really special.

Grey heron

Female kingfisher

Cormorant

Mute swan

Tawny owl

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A dismal day today but we made the most of it with a walk around Dyrham Park where I took a few more photos of the deer. Again, there wasn’t much action and certainly no rutting.

 

 

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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