Somerset.... mainly Ham Wall RSPB

 So still catching up with stuff from June! We booked a week in Somerset in between visits to Birmingham. Ham Wall is one of our favourite reserves in the UK, mind you we do have lots of favourites 😂

Ham Wall:

Marsh Harrier

Dragonfly, not sure of species,

Growing up fast! A young Great Crested Grebe,

Great White Egret,

Broad-bodied Chaser,

Glastonbury Tor,

Dragonfly (species?),

At Westhay Moor, Great Crested Grebe, with chicks,

Dad bringing lunch home 

that was way too big! Eventually 'mom' had to eat it

Marsh Harrier back at Ham Wall,

Tufted Duck,

Little Grebe with two youngsters,

Merlin!

Black-tailed Skimmer (female),

Swans on one of the channels.

Black-tailed Skimmer (male),

Plenty of female Mallard, theres a few Gadwall in there too.

Grey Heron,

Mallard young at Chew Valley.

Gatekeeper Butterfly,

Common Blue Damselfly,

Broad-bodied Chaser,

Little Egret,

and a very distant blurred shot of a Bittern! We had quite a few Bittern sightings at Ham Wall but this is the only photo that is vaguely identifiable 😌

Loch of the Lowes (June)

 We also managed a day at Loch of the Lowes to see what progress the two Osprey chicks were making. It's always a joy to visit this Scottish Wildlife Trust site you never know what will turn up, apart from the Ospreys of course 😃

So I will start with a wee video....

We must have watched the Great Spotted Woodpecker family feeding their youngsters for a good half an hour.

So what about the Ospreys:

They are doing well and by the time you read this they will have fledged. (Actually I know they have as we have visited again since this visit and the young female had already fledged and the male was helicoptering and has since branched out)

There were also a couple of Great Crested Grebe nests, both sitting on eggs,

with the males busy finding his partner some food.

On the far shore some Fallow Deer put in an appearance:

Now some more Woodpecker shots:

Then the others:

Another great day out! We recommend it!

RSPB Loch Leven (Vane Farm)

 We had a nice afternoon out at the RSPB at Loch Leven,

Young Goldfinch,

Reed Bunting,

Goldfinch,

Gadwall,

Black-headed Gulls,

Shoveler,

Tufted Duck,

Lapwing,

Black-headed Gulls,

and Greylag Goose.

It was actually quite quiet, so not a lot else to say!

Crail & Fife Ness

 What can I say! It's been a while since the last post, it's just we are so busy getting out (and of course that's the beauty of living up here!) and about, there doesn't seem much time to sort photos out and then do the blog. So here we go with a bit of a catch up again.

We had a great day out at Crail and Fife Ness.

Crail beach and harbour....

Fife Ness,

Cormorants,

Lesser Black-backed Gulls,

Gannet,

Oystercatchers 

and Goosander.

In addition, Curlew, Shelduck, Guillemot, Razorbill, Fulmar and Kittiwake were seen as well as the common gulls. We popped to Kilminning NR as we left and added Linnet, Yellowhammer, Whitethroat and Meadow Pipit. A good day!