Category: Blog

Very dull and drizzly day – not really a birding session to Chew Valley Lake, as little ones in tow, but just happened to have a camera with me so couldn’t resist.

Lesser black-backed gulls, house martins, swallows and swifts. Pied wagtail and a yellow-legged gull (2nd summer juvenile according to Ian Stapp who I was pleased to meet for the first time) and a common sandpiper. Flyover Canada geese, little egret and grey heron. Pleased that the older of the little ones could recognise most of these – younger of the little ones did well on recognition too.

Yellow-legged Gull

     Lesser black-backed Gull and Common Sandpiper

Swift

Pied Wagtail

 LBB Gull, Grey Heron, and Little Egret

LBB Gull

Not quite like East Anglia but very enjoyable all the same

At the end of another beautiful day we enjoyed a very brief visit early evening to Duchess Park, Stoke Park; we saw the resident grey heron, a few coot chicks, several broods of ducklings, a brood of 7 Canada geese and 2 swallows.

Our first ever visit to Newton St Loe: such a pretty village and a beautiful walk around Bath Spa University and its lakes.

We saw a swan and its cygnets, three grey herons and a little egret on the lake and a deer and a hare on the edges. As we walked close to the university there were loads of jackdaws and crows and a flock of a dozen long-tailed tits. On the way back we enjoyed watching the swallows and house martins collecting flies over the fields.

A spot of nature watching is always uplifting even on a gloomy day and the Somerset Levels (as always) didn’t disappoint.

Great white egrets, little egrets, a bittern in flight and a glossy ibis were the stars, but marsh harriers, great crested grebes, lapwings and a variety of butterflies and bugs presented a challenge to photograph and were well worth seeing.

Click below for a gallery of photos from today

A Dartford warbler within a minute of starting our walk on Dunwich Heath, and so close, but a slow photographer only managed to capture the get away. But at moments like that you have to take in the beautiful surroundings.

At Minsmere the highlights were an adder in a wren’s nest (the chicks, we are told, escaped) and swallows at the sluice.

Black-tailed godwits take time out from feeding

Disputes on the scrape

Pied wagtail

Swallow deciding which way to go

“Bombing magpies is very tiring”

“We are quite happy here, thank you”

Med gulls making the most of their holidays in the UK 

A common tern measures up the situation

The symbol of the RSPB – an avocet

Barnacle Geese and goslings

A gadwall cooling down

“Not me guv!”

Click below for gallery of photos from today.

Another truly amazing day @RSPB Minsmere.

So many failed photos but enough successes to keep me happy. Some of the best were bearded tits, ringed plovers, redshanks, avocets, mediterranean gulls, black-headed gulls, black-tailed godwits, oystercatchers, lapwings, common terns, gadwall, marsh harriers, bitterns, cormorants, reed buntings.

We enjoyed the company of Steve and  Helen from Bristol too. Seven hours birding and still in the pub for a lunch time drink.

Click  below for gallery of photos from today

Having a day off from bird watching today as we were visiting Southwold and then going to the Aldeburgh festival this evening, but couldn’t resist popping in to the Hen Reedbeds on the way to Southwold for a bout of raptor watching.

The marsh harrier didn’t disappoint although it was a bit bothered by a lapwing.

We meant to pop in to Hen Reedbeds Wildlife Reserve just north of Walberswick which is where we are staying in Suffolk, for a quick visit but ended up spending most of the day there. Hen Reedbeds, a fairly new wildlife reserve, is a mix of wetland habitats, including reedbeds, fens, dykes and pools (see Wikipedia article) in the Blyth Valley.

As soon as we arrived we spotted a marsh harrier across the reed beds, then the first lapwing of our visit. Although the weather at the beginning of the day was most promising, by the time of our visit it was very grey and not ideal for photography. However, it was a pleasant walk (although quite chilly) and lots of wildlife to see as we made our way around various well-maintained and well-appointed viewing platforms and hides.

The highlights were gadwall, especially a female with its chicks, oystercatchers, shelduck,  a grey heron and several little egrets, a hobby, a buzzard, several marsh harriers, a lapwing, lots of small birds (reed warblers, sedge warblers and reed buntings) and even more bees and butterflies.

With the varied wild flowers, insects and birds the Hen Reedbeds offered the best of Britain’s countryside.

There were even some flyover aircraft for entertainment.

Click on the photos below for a gallery of photographs from today

Another amazing day at RSPB Minsmere. A slow start, but boy did it soon get exciting.

On the scrape there was a festival of gulls with great black-backed, lesser black-backed, herring, black-headed, Mediterranean, Caspian, yellow-legged and kittiwakes (thanks are due to local RSPB volunteer for help with ID and this article from Bird Guides.) We also saw black-tailed godwits, redshank, Canada geese, oystercatchers, avocets,  shelduck, common terns as well as ringed plovers on the beach.

Before reaching the Bittern hide we also saw grey heron, greylag geese, great crested grebe, mute swans, little egret, coots, moorhens, sand martins, swallows, a reed bunting and great spotted woodpecker with young.

However, the main spectacle of the day was a display of marsh harriers and hobbies right in front of us at the Bittern hide.

Before the day was over we even saw Cetti’s warblers (but I was not quick enough to grab a photo).

Click below for a gallery of a selection of my photos from today.

So lovely to be back at RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk on the east coast of England even though we only had time for a brief evening walk out along the North Wall to the East hide.

We were very sad to see that the sand martins had abandoned their cliff nests near to the entrance but we were not too disappointed as apparently they had moved to the nearby Dunwich Cliffs and we still saw hundreds of them them dashing across the reed beds enjoying their late evening feed.

The abandoned sand martin nests

Sand martin

We saw two types of tern (I hazard a guess at common tern and sandwich tern),

thousands of  black-headed gulls, and other gulls including a mediterranean gull. There were lots of waders on the scrape (and an incredible din); however, it was quite difficult to see clearly how many there were as we were facing straight in to the sun but we could certainly make out avocets (one of our favourite birds).

On the way back we could hear bearded tits and Cetti’s warblers and saw male and female pheasants. Not a raptor in sight though, but it was a good start to our week.

Click below for gallery of photos.

There wasn’t much bird activity on a Sunday afternoon walk through Lower Woods Nature Reserve near Wickwar until right at the end when a Kestrel was conserving its energy by watching carefully for prey from the telegraph wires.

A couple of years ago we had stayed on Skye on our way to the Outer Hebrides and thought that it would be fun to explore Skye and its near neighbour the island of Mull.

The trip was a great success with magnificent landscapes and (in the end) plenty of wildlife to see and photograph.

Here I have displayed some of the wildlife we saw but I have made a blog of our trip (see index) where (for our benefit mainly) there is a brief description of our itinerary and some photographs of some of the magnificent scenery and the wildlife.

The highlights were the white-tailed eagles (sea eagles), the divers (such as great northern divers, red-throated divers, red breasted-merganser, eider duck),  oystercatchers, hooded crows, siskins, wheatears and a twite.

I have tried to provide links to the craft centres and different venues we visited but need to work more on this. Amendments and additions will come soon.

Female white-tailed eagle

Female white-tailed eagle

Male white-tailed eagle

Male eider duck

Buzzard

Male and female eider duck with accompanying gull

Hooded crows

Wheatear

Twite

Siskin

Great northern diver

A dipper in flight

Itinerary

Days 1 & 2 – Friday 12th/ Saturday 13th May

Day 3 – Sunday 14th May

Day 4 – Monday 15th May

Day 5 – Tuesday 16th May

Day 6 – Wednesday 17th May

Day 7 – Thursday 18th May

Day 8 – Friday 19th May

Day 9 – Saturday 20th May

Day 10 – Sunday 21st May

Day 11 – Monday 22nd May

Days 12 & 13 – Tuesday 23rd/ Wednesday 24th May