Category: Blog

Another amazing day on the Somerset Levels: we briefly visited Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve and RSPB Greylake at the beginning and end of the day but the best was at RSPB Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve, two fantastic reserves only divided by a road but run by two different bodies.

There were regular views of bitterns, great white egrets, grey herons and marsh harriers.

Great white egret

Bittern

Grey heron

Marsh harrier

Great crested grebe

There were plenty of other ducklings, cygnets  and (greylag goose) goslings too.

Mute swan and cygnets

Greylag goose and gosling

The only small birds I managed to photograph were  a whitethroat and a young great spotted woodpecker calling for its parents.

Whitethroat

Great spotted woodpecker

The dragonflies and damselflies were everywhere.

But above all the countryside was lush and looked amazing in the sunshine.

Click below for gallery of photos from today’s trip:

I was surprised there were so few people on the Somerset Levels on a hot sunny Bank Holiday Monday. There’s always plenty to see and, although we only had a few hours there in the afternoon, we were not disappointed.

There were good views of  chaser dragonflies in the pond near the car park and even a grass snake swimming away from us.

Four-spotted chaser and a grass snake in the pond near the car park

At the first platform there was a great white egret skulking through the reeds.

From the Tor View hide we saw a distant bittern fly past; they could be heard booming all around.

Bittern

There were pochard and tufted ducks but the most interesting were the the great crested grebe with their black and white striped chicks and a grey heron which flew quite close.

En route to the Avalon hide we saw a Reed Bunting and on the way back (what I thought was) a sedge warbler.

Male reed bunting

Female reed bunting

We also heard a cuckoo and saw it fly by.

At the Avalon hide there was a pair of mute swans with their cygnets and a pair of great crested grebe preparing for family life.

We had a glimpse of a marsh harrier.

There were common blue damselflies everywhere.

We saw great white egrets everywhere but not very close up.

RSPB Ham Wall is a wonderful site (and much improved with its new car park, visitors’ centre and toilets) and just across the road there is Shapwick Heath with some very good hides. Round the corner is Westhay Moor and not so far away the bijou (but still one of my favourites) RSPB Greylake. But all of that was for another day.

Click below for a gallery of this afternoon’s photos:

 

 

 

 

The National Trust’s website page of Rodborough Common butterfly walk says that “the steep grassland slopes of Rodborough Common offer superb butterflying, walking and views over the Severn Estuary … look out for more than 30 varieties of butterfly, including rare species like the Duke of Burgundy and Adonis blue, that come here each summer to feed and breed on an amazing variety of wildflowers.”

Well we managed to see “an amazing variety of wildflowers”  but only saw one species of butterfly (large white) and rather a lot of sky larks. Perhaps the warm, breezy conditions did not suit the butterflies.

The views here and at Minchinhampton Common (where I played golf the following day and saw many Adonis blue butterflies) are truly amazing.

Early purple orchid

Polygala

Green alkanet

Common Vetch

Germander speedwell

Cowslip

Speedwell

Red clover

Meadow buttercups and cow parsley

Cow parsley

Common hawthorn still at its best

The Scots Pines were very abundant on the slopes adjacent to the Common

Common rock-rose

Skylarks everywhere

 

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning’s stroll on Rodborough Common:

 

Another lovely walk in Stoke Park and then down in to Eastville Park, this time through the eyes of a different camera and lens (Fuji X Pro 2 and 55 -200 mm lens).

I had good views of a grey heron in flight at Duchess Pond in Stoke Park and common swifts swooping across the lake. Plenty of ducklings and chicks en route. Eastville Park was so quiet and peaceful; I can’t start to imagine what the wildlife will make of this weekend’s pop festival.

Grey heron

Common swift

Female mallard and ducklings

Yellow flag iris

I think this could be water mint …

… and this water horsetail

Not so sure about spiders

I enjoyed seeing more insects and especially damsel flies although I was not lucky (not very good) with butterflies. The trees with lots of blossom and seeds are looking particularly magnificent and water lilies are appearing on the ponds.

Beautiful demoiselle in Eastville Park

Large Red Damselfly on the River Frome

Yellow water lilies

Canada geese on Eastville Park

Corvids everywhere

The muscovy duck in Eastville Park may be pretty ugly but it has got a beautiful plumage

Common comfrey in Eastville Park

This stunning tree on the edge of Purdown must be some sort of willow

 

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

 

The countryside in Britain is exceptionally beautiful at the moment and so too are the parks close to home in urban Bristol.On an exceptionally sunny day I went out for a walk from home in the hope of doing some bird photography but soon realised that I had the wrong camera/lens as it was the trees and the landscapes which I needed to be photographing. I tried to make do.

The path in to Stoke Park from Stapleton

Moorhen with chicks on the small pond next to Duchess Pond

The small pond and then Duchess Pond with views of the restorative work being done in the background

A grey heron on the flooded part of Stoke Park (hard to imagine today that we have had so much rain)

This grey heron was clearly more nervous than the ones in Eastville Park and flew off in the direction of Filton imagining itself to be Concorde

All the blossom was looking amazing

Buttercups are now at their best

Dandelions have had their day

… or have they?

Red Clover standing out amongst the greens and yellows

The Dower House which dominates this part of the city looking better for being shrouded with trees

A view from the top of Stoke Park with the houses (including ours) hidden by the trees

A glorious place for a stroll so close to the city

… or to fly your kite

… or to see the verdant suburb below

Wide open spaces just to stroll right next to a housing estate

Lots of butterflies (here a small copper) everywhere

My lens certainly couldn’t do justice to the trees of Eastville Park justice.

And really I was too close for these Canada geese with chicks

… or at least that’s what these two protective parents felt.

A duckling living perilously on its own

A more tolerant grey heron here in Eastville Park

 

Volunteers have done wonders controlling these along the River Frome

Still lots of ramsons to be seen

You don’t want to get confused with these type of plants – probably cow parsley but could be poison hemlock

The best of them all: the candles of the horse chestnut

Beech tree

Herb Robert (but I think this is Red Campion?) was the most observed species in the recent first global City Nature Challenge (see link below)

Perhaps it’s not so surprising that Bristol and Bath were best in Europe for first global City Nature Challenge

http://www.bnhc.org.uk/bristol-bath-best-europe-first-global-city-nature-challenge/

Click below for gallery of photos from my walk today:

Another lovely 12 k walk through the Mediterranean scrubland from our hotel to the tiny port at Cala Alcafar and back.

We saw very few birds (just a couple of gulls, a few swallows and 2 swifts) until we were within 20 metres of our hotel when, magically, a flock of bee eaters appeared on the wire in the next field. As I was photographing them a linnet also appeared on the wire. As soon as I turned round we saw a Thekla’s lark on another wire and it took to the air and flew very much like a sky lark.

About the sum of the birds we had seen until the very last moment.

Our path through the Mediterranean scrubland

Not many birds on our walk but plenty of wildlife

I had been hoping all week to see bee eaters

Linnet

Thekla’s lark

Encouraged by seeing the bee eaters I also took a couple of photos of the swallows nesting in the hotel reception.

Wonderful!

Click below for gallery of photos from today (including lots of lichen as I hadn’t seen many birds!)

S’Albufera des Grau in the north-east of the island was declared a National Nature Park in 1995 and covers around 5,100 hectares. There is a good visitors centre and a circuit of paths with many viewing points and hides. However, a telescope would be desirable as you are some way back from the lake and the dismal weather did not help photography. The main bird life at this time of the year are coots but we did see little grebe, great crested grebe, little egrets, one redshank and a purple heron (first for me). There were also yellow-legged gulls with their chicks and some Audouin gulls. We kept our eyes peeled for osprey but had no luck; however, I did spot a hobby flying over the lake.

Hobby

Little grebe

Great crested grebe

Yellow legged gull

Yellow legged gull and chicks

Little egret

Purple heron

Purple heron

Purple heron

Great crested grebe

Great crested grebe

Great tit (and not a bird feeder in sight)

The port of Es Grau with sea front restaurants

Audouin gull

Back at the hotel the sun shone briefly and I took a few photos of swallows, butterflies and a green lizard.

Typical Menorcan gate made of old olive wood

Barn swallows

 

 

Oh to be a botanist! We have moved to the southeast coast of the island of Menorca and, although we saw many of the plants we had seen on our last few walks, we saw a greater diversity of plants today as we walked through farmland and then through the garrigue-like land down to the coast. On the long distance coastal path of Cami Cavalls it was noticeable that the plants were often different on the sea-side of the path even though the path was only a couple of metres wide. And what a spectacle too!

A few of my favourites:

As for bird life we heard lots of warblers but only had very fleeting views. At the coast we saw a solitary redshank, a couple of Audouin’s gulls, a couple of cormorants, a pair of linnets (clearly nest building) and then right at the end of our walk a Thekla’s lark and a couple of barn swallows outside the hotel’s reception.

Redshank with crab

Audouin’s gull

Female linnet

Male linnet

Thekla’s lark

Swallows

Plenty of butterflies about but I only managed to photograph this one:

Click below for gallery of today’s photos:

After a coffee in the pretty port of Fornells on the north coast of the island we made our way towards the Cavalleria peninsula.

The port of Fornells

The wild flowers in the hedgerows along the narrow roads were stunning but, although we were often close enough to touch them, it was not sensible to stop to take photos. There were, however, plenty of opportunities to take photos of the flora and the fauna as we walked the long distance path (Cami Cavalls) along the fabulous section of the coastline from the sandy bay of Cavalleria to within sight of the golden beaches of Binimel-lá.

A sample of the hedgerows

Some of the amazing views of the beaches and coastline on our walk:

The best of the bird life:

Audouin’s gull

Richard’s pipit

Cormorant

Peregrine

Red kite

Linnet

Some of the flora:

Not sure if this constitutes a nature photo – locals taking mud baths at the beginning of our walk.

 

Menorca has the only resident population of Egyptian vultures in Europe (around 100 pairs) and so it would have been disappointing not to see them. We walked along the gorge from Santa Galdana on the south coast with wild flowers adorning the route to a backdrop of dramatic limestone cliffs and birdsong all around. We had sightings of booted eagle and black kites on our way and were well rewarded with good views of Egyptian vultures at the end of the gorge.

Egyptian vultures

Booted eagle

Black kite

On the return journey we also saw a kestrel, more views of booted eagles and kites and even a pair of little egrets. The most stunning aspect of this walk was the birdsong; we had no difficulty in recognising Cetti’s warbler but were grateful to some birders who pointed out nightingales and Siberian chiffchaff. The nightingales were everywhere and filled the valley with their birdsong. Not that we saw them; most of the small birds were quite elusive except for house sparrows nesting in the cliffs and spotted flycatchers.

Spotted flycatcher

Kestrel

Little egret

There has been a lot of rain in Menorca recently and the meadows are quite lush and the wildflowers amazing. We regularly saw three types of butterfly (wall, brimstone and a blue one), dragonflies, and an amazing grasshopper the size of a locust.

Lush meadows

Amazing wildflowers

The end of the walk brought us right in to the resort of Cala Galdena on the long distance walk of Cami Cavalls part of which we had walked the previous day.

The Cami Cavalls (long distance footpath) follows the coast of Menorca.

Cala Galdana

Cala Galdana

Views of Cala Macarella on the Cami Cavalls long distance route on Saturday 5th May

Another bitterly cold day but not too bad for a walk through the woods, especially as I soon warmed up climbing the hill in to the woods in Stoke Park.

There was a grey heron on the flooded fields at the bottom of the hill.

Grey heron

In the woods I saw a great spotted woodpecker, a jay, and three blue tits.

Blue tit

It was interesting to see the work they have been doing in the park; removing the brambles and planting new trees. The work has been quite controversial amongst locals but to me it seems as though it’s going to be much better.

However, the wood carvings in the wood are a big hit.

I followed the ridge along Purdown and had good views of Stapleton Church and Colston’s School (where I had spent all my working life and reflected that this month 50 years ago I had turned up for interview).

Holy Trinity Church, Stapleton where peregrines can be regularly seen

Colston’s School

Most people were clearly at work by now

I dropped down to Eastville Park and saw three robins and two wrens early on.

There was no sign of the usuals (kingfisher, dipper, and grey wagtail) which was rather disappointing. However, I saw 2 coal tits singing very loudly and a tree creeper, which was a real bonus.

The Canada geese had taken the perching spot of the grey heron on the lake and seemed to be showing a very strange way of showing affection. The mute swans were much more placid.

Bluebells and ramsons were evident in both parks.

A 5.2 mile walk  on a Monday morning was certainly better than being at work.

 

I remember going to Slimbridge when I was a child and not being terribly impressed; how we change as we get old! Now I always enjoy a trip here and love the duality of it: the serious birdwatching opportunities from the excellent hides and the close-up opportunities of seeing wildfowl from all around the world in the pens. I also love seeing how much children enjoy being there.

We had less than two hours on a very cold morning but had lots to see and it was lots of fun. The best from the hides were common cranes looking to prepare a nest, avocets everywhere, my first sight of ducklings this year and some coot (or cute) chicks.

Common crane

Avocets

First ducklings of the year

Coot chicks

In the pens, despite the cold, the black-winged stilts were showing that spring is on the way.

Black-winged stilts

Redshank

Knot

Knot

Great close-up views of waders: redshank, knot and avocets

There are still Bewick swans to be seen.

And some of my favourites:

Goldeneye

Eider

Female smew

Male smew

Pochard

And lots of fun for children:

Click below for gallery of today’s photos: