scotland long weekend day 1 (sunday)

we went up to scotland for a the weekend seeing as though it was a four day one. we were going to go to calaverock on monday but the weather was supposed to get worse so we went on sunday (it proved to be a wise choice) as we drove down the lane to the reserve we encountered our first flock of barnalce geese. from there the birds just kept cropping up everywhere.

before i start lets not forget the commoner birds

see if you can count the teals

widgeon are such handsome birds

these shoveler were just outside the hide

i wanted to take photos of whooper swans so much whooper swans. in the end it was well worth it.

only 2 gadwall on the whole reserve

bar tailed godwits

april:-just so you know, i identified this bird on a i cant be bothered basis but having researched it it turns out that it is a black tailed godwit due to the black tail and lack of streaking. just a correction on the original mis-identification.

the real stars of the show

it was an awsome day and i really enjoyed it. besides the photos show the other bird were

2 snipe i didnt even relise i'd seen until i checked a photo of some teal

mallards, canadas, and mute swans

lapwings

2 distant shellduck

there were birds everywhere. once a fox spooked all the teal creating a mssive flock. they flew right over where i was standing and the noise was just incredible.

Day 4-brdignorth (wednesday)

today we packed up. on the way back we stopped off at a national trust place. it had loads of grouns and a deer park. no prizes for guessing that i went to the deer park first. the deer were shy but i managed to find them. what was most spectacular was the hunderends om mipits that eurupted from the path around me. feildfares were flying overhead in flocks of about 20. they kept stopping off at one tree so i managed to get some pictures. as i walked round i caught up with a buzzard and a seven spotted ladybird plus a wren and a robin. there was also a very shy moorhen on the river.

a seven spotted ladybird!!

the first this year in the midst of the harliquin front line

a very tame fallow deer

some not so tame fallow deer

plenty of feildfares were on passage

when we left i remeber seeing a little egret on the river but we couldnt stop so i diddnt get any pictures.

day 3-bridgnorth (tuesday)

having seen the country park yesterday we decided to come back. the wether was slightly worse than yesterday but still plenty of wildlife to be seen

huge numbers of goldfinch around in massive flocks

a willow tit

the experience never wears off
also in the country park:

1 bullfinch

1 moorhen

4 lonmg-tailed tits

feildfares and redwings over on passage

blue tits and great tits

afterwards we went to an arboretum. although birlife was short the fungus was astonishing

shaggy ink cap

a very dark g.s.woodpecker

fly argaric

the fungus was amazing. i found a smaller group of ink caps and took my dad to see them. they were next to a pong and as we arrived a kingfisher appeared really close. it was much tamer and was fishing just infront of us. i tried to get some photos but they failed and in the end it flew over. as it flew off it went over my dads head and did a poo!!

also there were:

1 willow tit

redwings over

2 jays over

buzzards

coal-tit

great tit

blue tit

blackbird

day 2-bridgnorth (monday) part 2

the second part of the day involved alot of wlaking. the idea was that we would get off at a country park station and walk round. unfortunetly the train didnt collect passengers at this station so we had to walk all the way to the next station. we ate lunch near the station and thenh walked along the river severn to our next station


the thermals made conditions just right for buzzards so we saw plenty

a mandarin pair was on the parks duck pond

look at this beauty we found on the river

a ruddy darter dragonfly, in october!

you never realise the extent of the porblem until you experience it first hand. these were the first halaquins i have ever seen but to be sure they will not be the last (we checked our car before we set of and at least three were trying to hitch a lift) >:(

a comma butterfly

plenty of wildlife out today

mallards and moorhens are the only things i have not metioned.

day 2-bridgnorth (monday) part 1

today we went for a ride on the trains. when we arrived we learnt that the tornado (most recent built steam train) was here. we stood on the bridge and waited for it drive underneath us. when it did though my brother got a cloud off smoke in his face-sucker.
we went up and down the track once and then decided to stop off at a little country station when will be in part 2. the one bit of wildlife that was notable was the elephants in the shrubland-very rare these days!!

a rare sight!

the train we used for the journey

the tornado-a special sight

a rare manor class steam train

p.s. there were also lots of camera shy pheasants as we drove past, buzzards, carrion crows and a jay.

day one-bridgnorth, shropshire (sunday)

we often go on holiday at this time of year, but this year we were a little late bucking and so we went to no apparent place whatsoever. personally i cannot say that before this i had ever heard of this place but so thats the way it is. on the way down we stopped off at some random national trust place, as we often do, in the middle of nowhere. but there was not much loss as the sun was shinning and it was warm. the birds were remarkably sparse
starlings-lots
goldfinchs-7
great tit-1
canada goose-plenty
mute swan-2
mallards-i diddnt count
moorhen-3

the trees were all fruiting at this time of year.



all the geese needed cleaning
to some surprise there were plenty of insects about despite it being late october
southern hawker
red admiral
small tortoiseshell

once we arrived at the campsite we discovered (well i did, since i haddnt been before) that it had a great pond and dangerously tame mallards.