Titchwell RSPB Reserve Before the Rain

 Yesterday the RPS Nature Group managed a shortish morning's bird photography before the rain set in which was fine as most people were journeying considerable distances back home. There were very large flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover settling on the scrapes in beautiful light showing off their colourful but very good camouflage plumage in with Teal, Dunlin, Wigeon etc. Down on the beach there weren't the expected numbers of waders, certainly compared with the huge flocks at Hunstanton, but most of the species were there in small numbers. Here a couple of Bar-Tailed Godwits and an Oystercatcher with mussel. A lone Black-winged Stilt with a ring (?escapee) posed beautifully. 

St Aidens RSPB Reserve

 St Aidan's RSPB Reserve has been transformed from an old, open cast mine to a reserve with a rich variety of habitats including reedbeds, wetlands, meadows and woodland. It has a breeding population of Black-necked Grebe, which I was keen to see as I hadn't seen summer plumage birds before. There were lots of Bittern booming and several took to the air during our visit. Otherwise the numbers of singing Warblers - Sedge, Reed and Willow were very impressive along with Reed Buntings and all the usual water birds

Toadstools from Sandy Bedfordshire

With all the recent rain and relatively mild temperatures, the fungi are abundant everywhere including RSPB Sandy. We had a very enjoyable day there yesterday with only one shower when we needed to shelter. Here some of the Toadstools; smaller fungi and lichens to follow!

RSPB Sandy Bugs, Fungi and Hobby

Yesterday was the RPS Nature Group outing to RSPB HQ at Sandy. It was postponed from previous week and the weather was slightly improved as largely dry but still windy and cool. However, we did manage to find a good selection of plant bugs, crickets, butterflies and  dragonflies.  Mike and I took an early morning walk round and spotted a Hobby and quite a few unseasonably early fungi.