Birds at Summer Leys Northamptonshire

Great to see a large number and variety of water birds at Summer Leys Reserve today including several Great White Egrets, four Snipe, Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper, large flocks of Lapwing as well as hundreds of ducks, and  lots of Heron, Grebes, Little Egrets etc.

Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre

We were promised sunshine for our Nature Group outing to Slimbridge yesterday but most of the day it was cloudy with a bit of rain. Here some of the birds around the central area of the reserve. The Jackdaws and Rooks were busy building nests. The views of the Estuary and its birds were great with a dark stormy sky behind while it was good to get images of Chiffchaff, Snipe and four different Kingfishers

RPS Nature Group Outing to Paxton

We had to cancel the arranged date for our trip to Paxton due to the extreme heat warning so yesterday was one of the two replacement dates and we hit lucky with the weather and the birds but not so successful with the insects, which are in very short supply along with (and caused by?) lack of their prey. This Egret gave us a good display landing so close it doesn't allow a Facebook format crop. The highlight was watching hundred or more cormorants fly in to feed on what must have been a fish swarm and also the confiding Snipe. There were also large numbers of Gadwall just about out of eclipse.

Stars of RSPB Blacktoft Sands

The RPS Nature Group outing to Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve near Goole produced some great close views of commoner waders (including Blacktailed Godwit),ducks etc plus one star species, White-winged Lapwing (last image - an accidental from Iran), at a distance. It was very cold and icy there and 4 of the 6 hides produced no birds at all but was compensated by these great views (all quickly converted from Raw files - will process fully when home and replace)