Thursday 31 May 2012

Devon calling.

Five birds added to my yearly list, two of which were lifetime firsts. My recent trip to Devon with Mike Smith to stay at Chris Gradys place was much looked forward to and didnt fail to to produce.

I'm sure that on another trip we would have done more photography but believe me it wouldn't have been any better. The hospitality shown to us by Chris and Lynne was fabulous, despite the ribbing by Chris and Mike because I wanted my Vienetta Ice cream microwaved.

We also went to two RSPB reserves that I'd not visited before, Radipole lake and Lodmore. I loved both places, I also loved the coastal areas we visited too, there's something mystical about being near the sea.

Less of that though lets look at a few of the shots I got. First are a few of the Common Tern shots, these are from Lodmore. A little too far away so they are crops but I still think they are great.



















Watching the Terns hovering and diving for food was amazing, There was also an Arctic Tern present at Lodmore, that was one of my lifetime firsts. Didn't get a shot of him though.

A walk around the the rest of the reserve produced a Heron.























and a Black Headed Gull.
















We also saw but didnt photograph Marsh Harrier and Cettis Warbler.

Over at Radipole Lake we got shots of another lifetime first for me, Hooded Merganser.

































also Great Crested Grebe,
















and Herring Gull,

















We saw Cettis and a Common Sandpiper here too.

Chris has a wonderful garden, with lots of birds visiting his feeders, he also has a lot of Bank Voles, we managed to humanely trap one and put it into my glass tank, I managed one shot which I was happy with.
















Bank Voles don't settle as quickly as Field mice etc so within a few minutes we released the bank vole and it toddled off no worse for the experience.

In an area near to Chris' house we got shots of Yellowhammer and we saw a pair of Deer, unfortunately even with the bino's they were too far away to positively identify but chris knows that the area is well used by Roe deer, so we presumed they were those. The Yellowhammer were sweet.


The trip was extremely enjoyable, we saw some cracking stuff and some fabulous scenery. I was sad to leave and look forward to the next trip if, of course, we are invited again.