Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos

Tag: photography

  • 3rd April 2024 – RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon

    3rd April 2024 – RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon

    We have spent the last few days in North Devon. It wasn’t a birding trip but on our visit to RHS Garden Rosemoor I did get to see siskins which are not very common where I live in Bristol.

    I share a few of the other “garden” birds we saw as well as a few photographs from this wonderful garden in Devon.

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    RHS Garden Rosemoor

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    Siskin
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    Dunnock

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    Male chaffinch

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    Siskins

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    Siskins and female chaffinch

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    The azaleas were a picture

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    It has been very wet and windy but the tulips were surviving

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    Fritillaries

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    Robin

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    A lot of colour in the bamboos

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    You don’t have to go to Japan for cherry blossom

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    A very vocal peacock

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    Quite a scruffy blackbird

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    Formal and informal gardens at Rosemoor

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    Formal sculptures

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    … and informal sculptures

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    Colours starting to appear in most of the trees

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    Apples are “big” in Devon

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    Camellias would look better with some sunshine

    Rhododendrons

    Water features too

    Magnolias

    Magnolias losing their bloom

    En route we stopped off at Tawstock to visit St Peter’s Church. You are most welcome to have a look if you like that sort of thing:

    St Peter’s Tawstock, Devon

    … and my other non-birding blogs

  • 16th February 2024 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    16th February 2024 – WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire

    Another break in the rain and so we make a dash for Slimbridge. There’s not much doubt that these are currently wetlands.

    Northern lapwings and golden plover clearly enjoying the wet conditions

    There were a few rarities there today (spoonbill, dark-bellied Brent goose) but the only rarity (for Slimbridge) which we managed to see amongst the thousands of birds on view were two Whooper swans who have joined the visiting Bewick swans and the native mute swans.

    Bewick swan

    Whooper swan

    Mute swan

    Northern pintail

    A ruff and a shelduck either side of a pair of wigeon

    Black-tailed godwits were easier to pick out when they took to the air

    Lapwings

    Even the chaffinch had to negotiate the wet conditions

    We heard the curlews way before we saw them

    I only saw two oystercatchers

    There were rather a lot more golden plover

    The golden plovers regularly made splendid displays over the wetlands

    Northern shovelers

    Wigeon

    Whooper swan up close

    The Bewick swans are much smaller than the Whoopers (and the mute swans) and have proportionally more black and less yellow on their bills

    Male and female tufted duck

    A few of my favourites from the pens:

    Smew

    Goldeneye

    Common pochard

    Goldeneye displaying

    Slideshow of my photos from this morning’s visit:

  • 10th February 2024 – Painswick Rococo Garden

    10th February 2024 – Painswick Rococo Garden

    (If you are receiving this blog by email subscription please click on the title above to view as a web page for a better experience).

    Painswick Rococo Garden near Stroud on the edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire is currently resplendent with its display of snowdrops and hellebores.

    The Rococo Garden website:

    “Painswick Rococo Garden is quirky and pretty unique. Designed in the 1740s as a fanciful pleasure garden for the owner of Painswick House and his guests, today it’s a place to roam free, to get up close and personal with nature, or to feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you take in the spectacular views of the Cotswold countryside and magical follies”

    I must admit it was great to see the light of the sun even though we couldn’t quite feel its warmth.

    This wasn’t really a birding trip but we did enjoy hearing the drumming of a great spotted woodpecker. The great tits and robins were particularly vociferous too but the only visuals (apart from the carved tawny owl) were 8 moorhens on the pond.

    Snowdrops and hellebores

    Snowdrops and crocuses

    Swathes of snowdrops in the woodland

    ,,, and following the stream

    The formal gardens come to their own later in the year

    “Magical follies”

    Up close with nature

    A badger’s set

    Rococo – of or relating to an artistic style especially of the 18th century characterized by fanciful curved asymmetrical forms and elaborate ornamentation

    Slideshow of my photos from this morning’s visit: