Seafield & Loch Leven (Findatie)

 So still catching up with photos and all that. Another couple of outings earlier this month were another walk at Seafield towards Kinghorn and a walk from the Findatie Car park at Loch Leven.

So starting with Seafield, offshore birding was much quieter with only Eider and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers being seen, apart from Cormorant and Gulls of course, here's an obliging male Eider that ame in close:

Also we had a good display from a Wren while we were sitting having a coffee:

As usual nice views of Redshank, Curlew and Ringed Plover, we did see Turnstone, but sorry no photographs and for the first time we didn't see any Purple Sandpipers.

Ringed Plover

Redshank

Curlew

Curlew

Along the way we the only bird to pose was a male Reed Bunting, but even then he turned his back to us!

After our walk we just popped along to Kinghorn and found the nesting Fulmars;

So onto Loch Leven, this was only the second time that we walked from the Findatie Car Park up along the river and across the footbridge. It was certainly a Grey Heron day, we lost count of how many we saw during the day. Here's just a few!

We had a fabulous birding walk plus a bit of aviation too!

Pink-footed Geese

Black-headed and Common Gulls

Pied Wagtail

Son Thrush

Chaffinch

Gadwall

Buzzard

More Pink-footed Geese

Black-headed Gull

Male Merganser

Female Merganser

Robin

and our first Blackcap (distant!) of the year.

and not forgetting:

Treecreeper

A great afternoon!

A Week in Somerset - Pastures Old

A week down in Somerset wouldn't be the same without visiting Ham Wall (twice) and Shapwick Heath, plus a more touristic jaunt to Cheddar Gorge.

So some highlights from Ham Wall:

Another Grass Snake,

A Wren having a dust bath, never seen a Wren do that before.

A Bittern in a distant (and somewhat blurry!) fly by.

Female Blackcap,

a nice if somewhat hot walk.

There is a Water Rail hidden in there, honest!

Great Crested Grebe,

Great White Egret

and a Little Grebe.

Shapwick was very quiet, as it was hot and the hides were still closed, we sat on a bench for a while having a coffee, watching the activity on and around the lagoon by the tower hide.

First up was a bit of Royal Navy action, I'm guessing from RNAS Yeovilton, a Westland Lynx, this was followed a bit later by a Navy Merlin. Sadly not of the feathered variety 😏

On the left hand side of the water an Egret roost developed, with a Grey Heron being the King of the Castle and a Cormorant being left out on a limb.

It was nice to see a Great Crested Grebe still on a nest, this must be a second brood as I would have expected to see some cute Grebe humbugs at least.

Finally on the walk back after spotting a Hobby perched on a distant bare tree, this Jay posed for a moment.

So what about Cheddar Gorge? The main purpose of the visit was to see if there were on signs of Water Vole in the ponds, we have seen them before but the last time was in 2012, so we don't know if they are still there. No sign of them this time, but we did pick a new bird for the trip, a Grey Wagtail:

We also guess the Peregrines no longer nest in the Gorge, just some goats

and people.

We took a big step in Cheddar, we actually bought a coffee and sat outside on a terrace enjoying the view! Then we had the audacity to buy an ice cream no less! We drove out of Cheddar up the gorge and just took random turns, finding another spot to pull in and have another coffee (not bought!) in the Mendips. We parked adjacent Ubley Warren NR, a Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve, there was quite a bit of distant birding activity

So that's it apart from a few more pics from the garden of our cottage: