More from the Cotswolds

We took a trip to Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds for a day out to celebrate Jac's birthday.  While walking through the pictureseque village I saw a couple of Grey Wagtails.  So a few minutes back to the car, grabbing the 7D, 300f4 with 1.4EFTC, as a nice lightweight walkabout wildlife option, I was in business.

The first three images show the female bird as you can see the yellow is not so pronounced and nor is the bib as dark as the male.  This bird has some red plastic twine caught around her left leg, but it did not seem to concern her.  Lets hope she clears it and it doesn't get snagged on something.

These second two show the male and you can see the differences with more pronounced markings around the head.

In each case, I used the pop up flash to fill in and give a litttle more light as the birds were in heavy shade with very bright light overhead.

On another aside, we had two new butterfly species in the garden today for this year, with our first Holly Blue and male Orange Tip of the Spring, so we are now up to eight species this year.

Trip Report - Good Friday from Gloucestershire

I took a day trip out around a few locations in Gloucestershire with a fellow birdwatcher/photographer and friend to see what we could find.

The first location yielded this delightful Red Crested Pochard which is now a breeding species in this location, rather than an escapee.

It was a good location with sightings of Bullfinch and a Woodlark overhead. There were also decent numbers of Sand Martin and Swallows too




On to the next location to see Grey Wagtail. This delightful male bird was running along a dry stone wall just above the river










And his 'wife' decided that should would sit over the river of this barbed wire. A marked contrast between the delicate nature of the bird against the harsh intent of the barbed wire







Then on to WWT Slimbridge to take a look at the kingfishers. We saw them briefly but all at too great a distance to get decent images. So around to the South Lake hide, which is probably the best in terms of point of view. A couple of Little Grebes entertained us for a while








A short while later this beautiful Great Crested Grebe and partner came across, this one catching a small fish which was interesting to watch





Sadly, it was horrible grey flat light all day, so the images are not good from a light perspective but thought I would share with you as a record of some of the day.

Martin

Local Patch - Warwickshire

A quick update from me today.

Since I wrote last time, there has been a few pluses and minuses in the garden. Sadly, I haven't seen the Grey Wagtail since I got back from Mull, so it has either been 'catted' or hopefully moved on to breed somewhere.

There was a new garden first this week - A Red Legged Partridge dropped by for an overnight stay. It was wet and dark when I saw it, so no images and again was worried it wouldn't see the night out but things were fine, and it moved on the next day. An unusual species for what is essentially a town garden, but then maybe my plan to make the wildlife garden is bringing the countryside to us. The usual large flocks of Blackbird and Sparrows are still here with the odd surprise visitors of Long Tailed Tit were back in today's, as well as a Male Blackcap. Not sure if it is an overwintering one that has popped back or an early arrival - would tend to think it was the former.

I have a couple of Sparrow Terrace nest boxes to put up very soon so we can hopefully give a few of them an easy chance.

The pond is slowly filling up from frog spawn, there are now at least five large clumps of the stuff, so I will look forward to lots of tadpoles and froglets through the spring and summer.

Some of the early wild flowers are now popping out and the new hedging I put in is budding well.

My 1Dmk111 is with Canon as you will have seen, so I will have to wait til that is back to start getting some of this stuff onto memory card

Further out in the countryside from here, the Fieldfare are still around, although in much smaller numbers. Buzzards are flying well and displaying, and I watched a couple of Hare today, although sadly not boxing.

If you haven't completed the poll, we would be pleased if you could, as all feedback is useful for us to tailor what we write to what people want.

Although, you will have noticed that Local Patch isn't an option - you are getting that at least once a week.

Martin