Barn Owl

Watching this Barn Owl last night quartering the marsh for about 25 minutes with Paul was a very nice way to spend a dull dark evening. We actually saw it catch 4 voles in that time too, which is a rare sight to see, as normally they miss 9 times out of 10. It floated over the marsh most of the time but just once it came close and I was able to get a small sequence of shots. ISO 800 5.6 at 320  shutter speed is certainly far from ideal for flight shots but you press the trigger or you don't. I choose to press it.......

The patch

I'm into my 20th year of birding the Ingrebourne Valley as my patch and I can honestly say, I still enjoy it after all this time. With the sound of a Nightingale singing every night for the last few weeks plus Whinchat, Yellow Wagtail and a Marsh Harrier being my latest birds seen here, I can't really complain. Ok, the birds are not setting the birding world alight but it's my patch which I share with others and it delivers what it says on the tin! You get to see 100 spieces on average per year and get some scare passage birds and now then  and sometimes get a good patch bird, but we're just waiting for the good one to arrive....

Lapwing

Closer to home

Although I went to Dungeness on Saturday and Littlehampton on Sunday both venues failed to produce anything image wise. So this morning (Monday) the patch didn't let me down for once and I was able to press the trigger on the camera!

Mute Swan cygnet

2nd Summer Herring Gull

Last Saturday I spent a enjoyable afternoon session at Dungeness with Mick and Richard. Although we did see a Wheatear around the boat area, we concentrated on sea watching which was a little slow as 2 Little Tern, Sandwich Terns,10 Common Scoter and a few Swallows in off were added to the note book. With high winds we thought we would of done a lot better but as always with Dungeness its a great place to go and try to find something....

Strawberry blonde

Myself and Martin B only missed the Red-rumped Swallow by 15 minutes at Thamesmead this morning which was another excellent find by Rich Bonser. We gave it about an hour searching through the large group of Swifts and Martins but it was clear it had moved on. So, having failed to see the rumper and photograph any of the Swifts well, this Strawberry blonde Coot chick is the only image from the morning. 

Bar-wit

A winter plumage Bar-tailed Godwit on Benacre pool in Suffolk.