December 2022 The beautiful Kemerton Lake Nature Reserve

 A really special and beautiful place is Kemerton Nature Reserve.  I love this reserve. I have spent many a morning or afternoon there and it always provides something really interesting to observe. The walk to it is also very enjoyable, through the Kissing Gate and into a fantastic woodland with well-maintained rides.

The hides overlook the lake on both sides, so you can choose the lighting direction for photography.

A female Kestrel

As you come out of the wood there is an open space and there is quite often a Kestrel hovering looking out for some prey.

A Coot taking a bath

Coots and Little Grebes are quite common, and they also get quite close to the hides which they have got quite used to.

Little Grebe or "Dab Chick"

This one has caught a Dragonfly

The Little Grebes are a great photo opportunity and can been seen with all sorts of prey.

It was amazing to see Dragonfly's Ovipositing in late November.  What a mild year this has been.

Towards the end of November!

The real star of the show are the Kingfishers that use the perches specially provided near to the hides.

A male Kingfisher on the perch provided.

At one stage it was quite frustrating as you see the Kingfisher fishing from the perch, but the reeds were in the way.  One of my friends asked if they could trim them back a little bit.  The reserve Team duly obliged.  What a place, and thanks so much for the team that performed this operation. 

One lunch time I was watching a late staying Hobby catching Dragonfly's over the lake.  It then landed in one of the trees and allowed me to capture some stunning images.

What a beauty

So thanks to the team that maintain this special reserve and make it such a spectacular place.

My reserve of the year in 2022

June 2022 A few days at RSPB Bempton Cliffs

 We stayed at Scarborough and had a few sessions at RSPB Bempton Cliffs.  It really is a magical reserve and there are plenty of species that you are guaranteed to see during the nesting season.  It is also a great place to practice your birds in flight photography.

I hope I get to see this fellow

I saw this poster on the way down to the cliffs.  It is actually life size what an amazing bird and I heard it had returned in the last few days.  My appetite was realty wetted!

What a wingspan 7 to 8 feet

Everyone loves Puffins and that includes me.  There are plenty around and I was quiet pleased with this image.  I thing the white flowers really set it off. It is almost as if someone has been arranging the set to allow people to get satisfying images.

A beautiful Puffin in full breeding plumage

What an amazing bill and they have such doleful eyes.

On the cliff face there are a number of regular species and these include Guillemot's, 

Guillemot

Kittiwake

Razorbill

I particularly love the call of the Kittiwakes they are such a cliff top bird and love the marine environment.

Gannet

The Gannets were circulating around constantly and coming around just above the Cliffs.  They were relatively an easy target for the camera as they were flying and hovering right next to the cliff.  Quite a mesmerising sight I could just watch them for hours.

Another bird I love is the Fulmar.  It circles around on stiff wings.  It does remind me of a small Albatross.

Fulmar

No sign of the Albatross on the first day, but it was a really enjoyable morning.  Along the path back to the centre there was a very confiding and showy Tree Sparrow.  As they birds are virtually extinct in my own county of Gloucestershire I could not walk past without grabbing a few images.

Tree Sparrow

This bird has now become quite rare in the UK

That was a very enjoyable morning.

The next afternoon we had seen most of Scarborough and made a late decision to re-visit Bempton in the afternoon.

We travelled light and I had my camera settings ready for birds in flight and just a bean bag.

There were people with scopes saying they could just make out the Albatross far out at sea.

Someone shouted there he is down under the cliffs and it was areal panic to get the bird in focus.

It only appeared for a very short time.  I was so chuffed to capture a few images.

Black Browed Albatross

I don't normally count myself as a twitcher, but we had planned the holiday months ago.  When you think that this bird is one of only perhaps two in the Northern Hemisphere and it had been absent from Bempton for six months before we arrived.  I count myself as very lucky.

One bird doesn't make a summer.

Well perhaps this one does!

 

June 2022 After a holiday, back to my own patch, and some British Wildlife

 A holiday in Majorca was brilliant but it is always great to get back to my own patch and some native wildlife.  The breeding season is well underway.  A pair of Nuthatches are very busy feeding their young.

Nuthatch finding plenty of insects

I love this nest site, and managed to capture images of them earlier in the year building up the entrance hole with dried mud.

There are plenty of farmland birds around with Linnets and Whitethroats back on their territories.

Female Linnet

Whitethroat

There are plenty of mammals around to see.  My favourite and back on patch on Langley Hill are the brown hares.  They are so welcome after an absence for many years.  

Brown Hares

The most regular sight are the Roe Deer.  I can almost guarantee to see them.  I am quite disappointed if they don't appear.

A buck in the mowing grass

Doe feeding on Oak leaves

They are great to see, I always enjoy them.  We spent many years with them absent.  The does should have fawns by now but I haven't managed to see any this year.

A lot more difficult to see are the foxes.  They are so much more shy than their urban cousins.

Fox in the summer buttercups

I love the meadow grassland in this image.  So natural looking.

It's really great to be back on patch and catching up with  my local wildlife.

Have a great summer all.

May 2022 ~ A trip to S'Albufera wetland in Majorca

 What a place! S'Albufera wetland is simply beautiful and breath taking.  It was great to have a holiday so near to this wonder.  I was able to combine a normal holiday with morning trips to the park.  Catch the 324 Iberostar bus for a couple of stops and you arrive at the park entrance.

On the way

Walking down the canal the most common bird in the scrub is the Nightingale, there are so many, it is really surprising especially coming from England where they are so uncommon.

Nightingale in full song

Along the canal you come to a roust of Egrets and Night Herons.  They are on the far side of the canal.

Night Heron in the roust

From the hides on the left side of the Visitor Centre there are many wetland birds over the vast expanse.

Purple Gallinule 

Black Winged Stilt

Marsh Harriers

Purple Heron

Just wait around and there is always the next thing turning up to be observed.

The exhibition building 

 There was excitement all around and it is such a brilliant place to enjoy nature photography and just so many opportunities.

It was well worth carry the big lens!

Carrying on around there is a opening where you can see the unusual Red Knobbed coot.  I have never seen these anywhere else.

Red Knobbed Coot

Why they have developed these unusual features is beyond me.  But they do make them attractive and different to get a few images.

Then it was over the canal to the "Bishops Hides" where there are quite a few breeding waders to be seen and photographed from the public hides.

The main canal through the reserve

Along the woodland paths to the hides.  There are plenty of nesting birds to observe at a safe distance from the hides.

Nesting Stone Curlew

Kentish Plover attending to its eggs

All this makes for a great wildlife morning and combined with being next to the beautiful resort of Alcudia this is an ideal place for a combined holiday. I can thoroughly recommend it.

Even on the way home there was a regular Hoopoe in the park opposite the hotel.

Hoopoe what a bird

Now for lunch at the luxurious hotel.

This is the life! 

March 2022 ~ Out and about in Springtime it has been a long time coming

 It has been a very long drawn out winter.  But at last Spring seems to be in the air.  I made a trip to Slimbridge which is in the transition from the the winter migrants to the new breeding season.  It was really great to catch up with some unusual birds.  There has been a long staying Glossy Ibis that is seen on the entrance fields next to a Dutch barn just over the canal.  I at last got some images of my own after seeing hundreds of birders reporting it.   Better late then never!

The beautiful Glossy Ibis

  Another new bird for me are the three Snow Geese that have been seen on the Tack-Piece.  Such lovely geese.  So Iconic.

Beautiful Snow Geese

At the local park the pair of Great Crested Grebes are in breeding mode.  They are later this year and the male arrived way earlier than the female.  It could be heard calling and seemed such a lonely figure but eventually she arrived.  It took them no time at all to get going.

The Iconic Weed dance

Love in the air

The Dunnock is in full song, if a little scratchy.

Dunnock with its scratchy song

If you look closely at the back of its throat you can definitely see how it makes it.

The Roe Deer buck seems to be loosing its velvet and exposing its new Antlers

Roe Deer buck

It was really great to meet up with a few new characters and I for one am so looking forward to some warmer weather!

Enjoy the new season everyone! 

January 2022 New Year ~ Getting the environment ready for the wildlife

 January has started off a bit cloudy but at least the ground has dried up enough to let us get on it.  It's time for a few jobs to be done to encourage the wildlife for the new season.  I like to check out the newly planted trees and ensure they are still standing after storm Arwen.

A new batch of Oak and Rowan

I like to plant a new batch of trees each year, and put them in the corners where hay making equipment never really goes.

Oak and Rowan

Gloucester Raptor Monitoring Group has managed to get hold of a large batch of nest boxes for Barn Owl, Little Owl and Kestrel that were allocated to the north Cotswolds region.  I managed to get my name on one of each type.

Kestrel, Little Owl, and Barn Owl

Of course they are of no use on the floor of my shed!

We planned where to put them and Ian came around on Sunday afternoon with his Impack Drill to help install them.

Ian putting saw dust in the bottom, Frances holding the ladder

Barn Owl box looking great

I really love the position of this one.  Surely ideal!

The Kestrel box we installed further up the hill where we often see Kestrels hovering over the grassland.

Kestrel Box in an oak tree

I love this sort of work it gives you real hope for the future especially with all the doom and gloom around at the moment.

Also thanks to the GRMG for this great project and Ian for helping to install them.