Isle of Bute

 As I said in an earlier post, we had a trip to the Isle of Bute in September, it wasn't a birding holiday as such, more Prosecco and Ale!! But we had a great time. Here's a few scenic shots and there might be a a couple of birds as well.

View from the digs!

Farmyard Duck or as we like to call them Heinz 57!

Little Grebe in the sun.

A nice night!

Grey Seal.

Greylag Geese.

Curlew on the shingle.

St Ninian's Bay

That'll do!

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 😌

This is February! Starting at Kinghorn Loch.

 We have threatened for ages to spend more time at Kinghorn Loch and get the code for the bird hide that's there so last week we finally did it. As usual the past few times we've been out it was a bit overcast and with the great Kingfisher views we had I could really have done with a bit more light, but you can't have everything!

So here's a few Kingfisher photos, plus a few other bits and bobs from the hide:

The others; Little Grebe,

Great Tit,

Coal Tit,

Robin,

Dunnock,

Long-tailed Tit