Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos

Tag: Bird photography

  • 11th August 2024 – Blakeney Point

    11th August 2024 – Blakeney Point

    This morning we walked along the Norfolk Coastal Path from Blakeney to Morston Quay and back.

    The most significant bird was a little egret.

    Little egret

    The Norfolk Wildlife Trust tells me that “once a very rare visitor from the Mediterranean, little egrets are now a common sight around the coasts of southern England and Wales as they expand their range, possibly due to increasing temperatures caused by climate change. It first bred in the UK on Brownsea Island, Dorset, in 1996, and has been moving northwards ever since; it was recorded as breeding in Berkshire for the first time in 2007.”

    The path between Blakeney and Morston

    Small dinghy making the most of the favourable tides and heading along the creek out to open water

    Arriving at Morston Quay

    At Morston Quay, as the tide and weather were suitable, we made a last minute decision to take a trip to see the seals at Blakeney Point.

    Blakeney Point is home to a colony of Common and Grey seals that are here most of the year round.

    One of the many boats which make the trip to see the seals


    The Blakeney National Nature Reserve is internationally recognised as an important breeding area for sea birds and a wide variety of other birdlife that changes with the seasons. From the boat we only saw oystercatchers.

    Oystercatchers

    Lifeboat House


    The Point has the distinctive Lifeboat house that provides an insight to the history of the point and is also where the National Trust wardens live and work to protect and conserve the wildlife and landscape.

    Common seals

    Common seals

    Grey seal

    Grey seal
    A solitary seal pup – the breeding season is only just beginning

    The boating fraternity were making the most of the high tide

    These dinghies, the Stiffkey Cockles, are made locally and are very popular here

    Common seals

    Grey seal

    Just as well we didn’t need the lifeboat as it is decommissioned
  • 10th August 2024 – RSPB Frampton Marsh

    10th August 2024 – RSPB Frampton Marsh

    I happened to notice a flyer for “Bird Watching” magazine saying that “August is traditionally a time for summer holidays, with plenty of sunshine inviting you into ‘the field’ (or down to the seaside)”. Well we headed to the seaside but there was very little sun.

    Nonetheless, we had a great start to our seaside holiday in Blakeney on the Norfolk coast with a detour to the wonderful RSPB reserve at Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire. We were a little concerned about doing the trip to Blakeney in one day. So what did we do? We made the journey longer and took in the National Trust property at Belton House near Grantham and then on to this fabulous reserve on the edge of The Wash. We did have a stopover in the wonderful Lincolnshire countryside at Osbournby to make things a little easier for ourselves.

    The sun shone on our visit to Belton House near Grantham
    Fallow deer at Belton House (escorted by a pied wagtail)

    At RSPB Frampton Marsh eyed hawk moth caterpillars in the car park set us off to a great start.

    Eyed hawk moth caterpillar

    Eyed hawk moth caterpillar

    Spoonbills were high on the star attractions list

    Avocets have got to be high on anyone’s list, especially with the super success story they continue to write

    Ruffs were everywhere but rarely very close

    The legs of the redshank were almost florescent in the dull light

    Sand Martin were almost impossible to photograph in this light so I was very happy with this shot

    Avocet in flight

    … and on its way back

    A peregrine caused this mayhem of godwits

    … but they soon came back

    The ringed plovers were displaced too and disappeared over the salt marsh

    Some of the godwits were unmoved

    Greenshank?

    Scaup?

    It was difficult to catch the spoonbills with their bills showing

    But occasionally they were obliging

    Ringed plover

    The greylag geese were easier to photograph but didn’t look at their best in the poor light

    The sun failed to appear all day until we reached Blakeney. Hopefully a good omen for the week.

    Sunset at Blakeney Quay

  • 7th August 2024 – Northwick Warth and Pilning Wetlands, Severn Estuary

    7th August 2024 – Northwick Warth and Pilning Wetlands, Severn Estuary

    I’m afraid golf and COVID have limited my birding activities in the last few weeks.

    This morning we had a walk along the Severn Estuary at high tide; even that was fairly limited as we had miscalculated the weather forecast. In fact, it was more a case of having the wrong clothing (as they say – there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing) and so we curtailed our walk when the showers set in.

    On Northwick Warth (a saltmarsh on the edge of the River Severn) there were big flocks of black-headed gulls and pockets of curlews and oystercatchers (over 50 of each) within our range.

    Oystercatchers and curlews

    The high tide spilling onto the warth

    On the warth there were flocks of meadow pipits and goldfinches and even larger flocks of starlings.

    Certainly not the best light for photographing swallows but they did come quite close

    On the other side of the Severn Walkway is Pilning Wetlands which seem to have been filled in quite a lot since our last visit. We couldn’t work out if they were trying to improve the wetlands or destroy them. Hopefully, when the wet weather comes it will be a case of the former.

    The light was very poor but on the first section of the wetlands we could make out over 50 redshank with a few dunlin and, I believe, a ruff. As it was high tide I imagine there would have been larger numbers of all these waders further along the wetlands but we were too “nesh” (certainly not my adjective nor one local to the west country) to carry on.

    Amongst the redshank I can make out a dunlin and a ruff

    Starlings everywhere

    Meadow pipit on the wire

    The weather forecast looks a little better going forward and so, hopefully, we will have better luck next week on our holiday in Norfolk.

    But there again I wasn’t too good at interpreting it today!

  • 5th July 2024 – Gulf of Morbihan, Brittany, France

    5th July 2024 – Gulf of Morbihan, Brittany, France

    Today we returned to the southern part of the Gulf of Morbihan to visit another nature reserve: the Lasné marshes at St Armel.

    A departmental (county council) reserve since 1978, these ancient salt pans, dating from the Middle Ages, have since 2003 been restored and salt is once again produced here. There are now also two shellfish producers that use certain salt pans. The rest of the marsh is for the birds that occur year round on this very favourable site.

    Lasné marshes

    Avocet landing

    Avocet chick

    Black-winged stilt

    It was great to get a view of the avocet’s legs

    This kestrel was easily seen off by a black-winged stilt

    Avocet in flight

    Redshank

    I’m not surprised these cyclists were checking their maps

    After this visit we headed back to Séné (where we had visited earlier in the week). After lunch in a very friendly Breton Crêperie we returned to the nearby nature reserve. This time we didn’t go round the reserve but followed a few trails which have viewing platforms looking towards the reserve.

    Little egrets
    A solitary swift

    There were plenty of butterflies today and some interesting flora:

    Large skipper

    Marbled white

    Gatekeeper

    Speckled wood
    Deadly night shade

    Lychen

    Just as we were finishing our walk we heard a zitting cisticola. I had just one go at photographing it before it flew off and was quite pleased to get a reasonable shot.

    Zitting cisticola

  • 4th July 2024 – Quiberon, Brittany, France

    4th July 2024 – Quiberon, Brittany, France

    With a spectacular rugged coast to the west and beautiful sandy beaches to the east, the Quiberon Peninsula offers 14 km of varied landscapes. We spent most of the day on the rugged west coast enjoying a walk along coastal paths which were quite accessible to us and having a leisurely lunch in the very popular “Le Vivier” seafood restaurant. Sitting on the terrace of the restaurant we had close up views of herring gulls which had clearly learnt their manners from British seaside resorts.

    Herring gull

    Spectacular scenery of la Côte Sauvage

    Herring gull

    Not many other birds (except for cormorants) but plenty of flora.

    Some sort of thyme I think

    Sea campion

    Sea thrift (not so pink now)

    A different type of thyme

    … and these lovely yellow flowers (which one search suggested Italian hawksbeard)

    Honeysuckle
    A parasitic plant

    Even the dock was quite vivid with a little sunshine on it.

    Squabling gulls

    A quite imperious herring gull

  • 3rd July 2024 – Domaine de Suscinio, Brittany, France

    3rd July 2024 – Domaine de Suscinio, Brittany, France

    Yesterday was a “birding” day and we saw very few birds, today was a “non-birding” day and we saw loads.

    Our visit to the Château de Suscinio brought plenty of surprises: as well as the visit to the wonderfully restored 800 year old castle we had a lovely walk around the natural park which is separated from the gulf of Morbihan by sand dunes which, in themselves, are of great interest with their huge biodiversity.

    The château de Suscinio

    Silene

    Samphire

    Quite some biodiversity. I think I would have been happier with a swallow-tail butterfly which are seen here.

    We saw no bluethroats, which are reported here, but I was not too disappointed as the poor weather, with very poor light, meant that I would have had poor photos. I’m quite happy to wait for better weather to see these beautiful birds .

    The swifts screeching around the castle were a highlight – you’ll have to take my word for it as I didn’t manage one decent shot of a swift.

    I was, however, very happy to see a Kentish Plover, as these are often reported here. We only managed to see one though.

    Kentish plover
    At least linnets stand out in the gloom

    Stonechats don’t always pose at the top of a branch

    There were plenty of pied avocets, black-winged stilts and common terns which, although not too distant, were quite difficult to photograph in the poor light. I’m not really complaining as if we had wanted to be assured of better weather we wouldn’t have come to Brittany. At my time of life it’s better to be complaining about drizzle than extreme heat!

    Pied avocets

    A pied avocet chick

    Kentish plover

    The château de Suscinio across the water

    Wild teasel

    Common tern swooping to drink

    Black-winged stilt

    Little egret

    Cattle egrets across the castle’s lake – by now the rain had fully set in

  • 2nd July 2024 – Marais du Brennegi, Brittany, France

    2nd July 2024 – Marais du Brennegi, Brittany, France

    Supposedly the Marais du Brennegi is a great area for bird watching.

    “The ancient salt marshes, sandy peninsula and large mudflats offer a superb environment for observing birds. Among the breeding birds, one can observe Kentish Plover, which generally settle on the large sandy beaches.”

    Well, we had a lovely walk but I managed only one bird photo (of a blackbird!) and only one butterfly in focus (although we did see small coppers and a marbled white).

    Blackbird

    Speckled wood

    However, all along our walk we heard skylarks singing, so we are certainly not complaining. Perhaps, though, they were complaining about the grey skies and the chill wind!

    As the French say, “faute de grives on mange des merles” (Beggars can’t be choosers). Well, I certainly wasn’t going to start eating blackbirds so I turned to photographing the flora of the shore line.

    Matthiola sinuata, commonly known as sea stock

    The marram grass and the dunes are well protected here

    Centaurium erythraea commonly known as European Centaury

    Allium sphaerocephalon – round-headed garlic

    Is this (and does this?) Heal-All (prunella vulgaris)

    In the afternoon we visited “Les alignements de Carnac” – the most extensive group of conserved megaliths in Europe.

    The stone alignments in Carnac were erected in Neolithic times. They are the most famous and most impressive examples of standing stones from this period, with some 3000 standing stones.

    We didn’t see them all but that was probably because we had had enough of the chill north-west wind

  • 1st July 2024 – Réserve Naturelle des Marais de Séné, Morbihan, Brittany, France

    1st July 2024 – Réserve Naturelle des Marais de Séné, Morbihan, Brittany, France

    The largest marsh in the Gulf of Morbihan, the nature reserve covers 530 hectares made up of a mosaic of mud flats, marshes, coastal lagoons and meadows. 

    There are excellent walkways and a good number of hides. However, the windows in most of the hides do not open and it was often difficult to take photos.

    Nonetheless, we made the most of a mainly grey day and saw some terrific birds.

    For us a pair of turtle doves were definitely the standout birds, although close ups of avocets, black-winged stilts and a water rail (even through a grubby window) were pretty special.

    European turtle dove

    Water rail

    Black-winged stilt

    Avocet

    Shelduck and godwits

    Juvenile robin

    Stonechat

    Common tern

    Grey heron and little egret

    Linnet catching the odd ray of sunshine

    European turtle dove

    We saw three types of butterfly.

    Marbled white

    Speckled wood

    Gatekeeper
  • 8th June 2024 – Chew Valley, North Somerset

    8th June 2024 – Chew Valley, North Somerset

    This robin was very keen to join us for lunch

    I spent my teenage years in the Chew Valley and regret that, at that time , I had little interest in nature. I did enjoy the aesthetics of the pretty village cricket grounds and always enjoyed cycling the lanes. I do remember occasionally taking in the wonderful scenery of this beautiful part of the country; but I failed to show interest in the specifics and failed to learn any of the names of the flora or to spend time studying the birdlife. What a waste!

    However, I hope I have made up for it in recent years.

    This morning we crossed the city before most people were active to visit an amazing garden south of Bristol in the Chew Valley – the Yeo Valley Organic Garden near Blagdon.

    The view from the garden café

    The gravel garden

    It was a bit early in the day (and still quite fresh) to see the great variety of butterflies that we usually see here at this time of the year. We had to make do with a scruffy Painted Lady and lots of damselflies.

    Painted lady

    Common blue damselfly

    There were birds to be seen too; notably robins, blackbirds, goldfinches, chaffinches, chiffchaffs , pied wagtails, and swifts and house martins flying across Blagdon Lake.

    Pied wagtail

    Lots of pollinators in the garden
    The view to Blagdon Lake

    Canada geese over the lake

    Swifts over the lake

    … and a little closer

    The goldfinches were much closer still

    Chaffinch singing its heart out

    Common chiffchaff

    The birch grove

    Big grass bed

    The veggie garden

    This bed of alliums was probably my favourite area today

    The red and lime beds

    The bronze garden

    The bronze garden

    Glasshouse

    Despite the sun not appearing very often the garden still looked stupendous. I hope some of my photos do justice to this lovely garden.

    After a tasty lunch at the on site café we stopped off at the village of Ubley and had a quick visit to the local church.

    The garden café

    Ubley Church north façade

    Ubley Church south façade

    Sadly, our return journey across the city was rather tortuous as we got caught up in the traffic of people going Saturday shopping. If they only knew, they would have been much better off driving out into the countryside!

  • 6th June 2024 – Eastville Park, Bristol

    6th June 2024 – Eastville Park, Bristol

    Back to real birds and other nature photos today.

    Grey wagtail

    We had a stroll around our local park this afternoon. We had hoped to see a tawny owl and a pair of owlets of which we had seen reports but, although everyone we met in the park had seen them, we were out of luck.

    Grey heron

    A very shy grey heron

    A young coot (whatever they are called)

    There were plenty of new arrivals such as ducklings, cygnets and goslings but they are all getting larger (or smaller in numbers where they have been predated!).

    The last of a brood of ducklings

    2 swans and five cygnets

    Canada geese and goslings

    The best of the birds was a little egret which a few years ago would have been a real rarity.

    Little egret

    Little egret

    Plenty of damselflies too and beautiful and banded demoiselles in abundance.

    Beautiful demoiselle
    Female beautiful demoiselle
    Large red damselfly

    Beautiful demoiselle

    Azure damselfly

    Beautiful demoiselle

    A very handsome lesser black-backed gull
    Little egret

    Canada goose

    Greylag/pink footed goose (escapee?)

    Magpie (and why not?)
  • 2nd June 2024 – Wells, Somerset

    2nd June 2024 – Wells, Somerset

    From time to time I publish a blog on this site which has very tenuous links to birds. The justification on this occasion is that on our visit to Wells in Somerset there was an installation in Wells Cathedral by Peter Walker entitled “Peace Doves”.

    After our visit to the Cathedral we also visited a local garden, Stoberry Park, which was open as part of the National Garden Scheme and some of my photos could be categorised as “nature” photos.

    The centre of Wells with the Cathedral behind
    The west façade of Wells Cathedral

    The installation “Peace Doves”

    Slideshow of photos of Wells Cathedral:

    Stoberry Park was just north of Wells and had magnificent views looking down onto Wells Cathedral and beyond to Glastonbury Tor.

    The pond had lots of dragonflies/chasers but I didn’t have the right lens to make the most of the opportunity

    The walled garden was spectacular

    … and featured lots of aeonium which I gather have to be taken into a warm glasshouse each winter

    The roses were at their best

    … ferns too

    The garden featured lots of sculptures

    Tea and cakes on the lawn were an attraction for many (which we couldn’t resist either)

  • 28th May 2024 – RSPB Ham Wall, Avalon Marshes, Somerset

    28th May 2024 – RSPB Ham Wall, Avalon Marshes, Somerset

    Another trip to RSPB Ham Wall and another dull day. At least it stopped raining during my visit.

    In this light it was always going to be about big birds and there were plenty of big birds to see: great bitterns, great white egrets, great cormorants, mute swans, marsh harriers, common cranes and grey herons were the biggest on display.

    This great white egret was blocking my path to the Tor hide, but I didn’t mind waiting

    … especially as I had to manoeuvre my way past this group

    I didn’t have to wait long for the great white egret to move on

    These greylag geese were the first action from the Tor hide

    Quickly followed by a pochard

    … and then a great spotted woodpecker

    Coot chicks

    soon to be replaced by a grey heron

    … who didn’t stay long

    Great white egrets were very active

    A great bittern surprised me as I made my way to the Avalon hide

    Great bittern in full flight

    Great bittern

    Great white egrets everywhere

    Marsh harrier from the Avalon hide

    Getting ready to land

    Then a male marsh harrier appeared

    I was so busy trying to photograph swifts in poor light that I nearly missed this common crane

    You can see why I had no chance with the swifts

    How could you miss such an enormous bird?

    Great cormorant taking off

    The great white egrets were quite showy

    But a nice way to end my day

    Slideshow of my photos from today: