North Wales day 4

The final day of the holiday, and this required going to a national trust property, as is the tradition. The one we chose was the botanic gardens between Conway and Colwyn bay. If I ha known that going to the gardens would require driving past the Conway estuary RSPB reserve I would probably have gone there, but I did not know this, so I tagged along to the gardens. I saw on the map that there were some ornamental ponds, so that's where I headed first. I walked all the way round each of them, hoping to flush a dragonfly, but I only spotted this damselfly, that seems to have some bird poo or something on its eyes.

-Common blue damselfly
Since there were no dragonflies on the ponds I headed down to the river, to see what was about. At the first bridge I spotted a rather handsome dipper on a rock not too far away, and seemingly uncaring about me being there. Unfortunately the low light presented by the tree's shade meant that photography was not an option.

-Dipper
It was whilst I was watching the dipper that something mammalian began to move in the water, and emerged just in front of the bridge where it became clear that it was mink. It didn't care about the spectators on the bridge, and surprisingly the dipper didn't care about it. Its the first time I have ever seen a mink, and the first time I have got photos of one, and though it is kind of interesting, its also very scary. It moved downstream pretty sharpish, obviously in a rush to get somewhere.

-Mink

I turned my attention back to the dipper on the rocks, and tried to get closer to it, whilst at the same time, getting more light. I didn't manage the latter very well, but I did get closer to the dipper, which was nice.

-Dipper

I headed up to the forest pond, there wasn't much there, although there was one dragonfly that must have landed somewhere out of bounds, because it certainly wasn't anywhere in bounds! By this time, it was time for lunch so headed back up to the top.

After lunch i headed back to the forest pond, and once more got fleeting glimpses of the dragonfly before it disappeared into the woods.

I walked down the river this time, and spotted a few juvenile brown trout in the river.

-Brown Trout
when I arrived at the limit of the river going downstream I met my mum and dad, who said they had seen some dragonflies on the ponds, where I had seen nothing. So I headed up there, and was rewarded with a pair of dragonflies. The female was landed and ovipositing, though she flew off and disappeared as soon as I showed up-as always happens.

The male on the other hand was very showy, were it not for the fact that it never landed. I therefore had to chance it trying to get a decent flight shot. I tried a few from distance, and then got a bit closer. And then its one of those things, I had it on focused quite close to me, and he came and flew right in front of me, slow enough to bang two shots, one was blurred, but the other-finest shot the holiday

-Southern hawker male

-Southern hawker male
but then he too disappeared into the bushes, but fortunately there were other things of interest, including a pair of ravens overhead...

-Raven pair
Whilst I was walking around the pond, hoping to re-flush a dragonfly I spotted a heron flying in to the pond on the next level. I headed up that way and was not surprised to see a small grey heron on the pond. it was quite bold, as grey herons often are, and so i had no problems getting photos like i wanted. I was a bit pushed for time, as the closing up time was 5 o'clock, but enjoy the photos.

-Grey Heron
I decided to give the bottom pond one last shot, despite time pressures, but luckily I was rewarded for my effort as the female that lands had returned to the pond and therefore I was able to get a few photos, to add to my southern hawker collection.

-Female southern hawker
I made it out of the gardens safely and then, as a family, made our way to Conway whilst we waited for the traffic to die down, whilst we were there my brother found a dead dogfish and I spotted this rock pipit I think, though I could be mistaken.

-Rock pipit

and there ends our wales holiday, what has been a very good holiday, despite being put together at such short notice.

lakeland day 2

Today dawned overcast but it was still pleasantly warm and dry at least. We decided to go for a walk to "aira force" which was apparently a big waterfall. As soon as we arrived we heard a cuckoo, which would be my first, so whilst my family went to have a coffee I wandered on to have a look for the cuckoo.
It didn't show, and it must have run away when i arrived where it was often seen (according to the warden who we spoke to). so I wandered down to the river to have a look there. I should explain that this was a shallow rocky river and that there was deciduous forest on either side. The warden also said "Name a bird and we will have it!". I though that was a bit optimistic considering that there are 10,000 different types of bird in the world.
Down by the river there was a bridge and from it I spotted a grey wagtail and so i decided to follow what looked like a path alongside the river. Although the "path" became distinctively less path like the further you went along it, until it disappeared all together. the wagtail had also disappeared leaving me in the on the edge of a river, with steep banks on either side. I decided to have a peek under some rocks because i know that native crayfish live in the lake district and that this might be where they live. I lifted up a promising rock and a young brown trout swam out.

Further on I decided that enough was enough and that i was going to have to climb the bank and get back on an actual path. I realised that I was at the top of the Field where the cuckoo apparently likes to sit, although it had probably flown away by now because I had not heard it since I arrived.
However a few minuets later my parents and brother appeared from round the corner so I joined them as we carried on towards the waterfall. When we got there (it was just around the corner) It was pretty spectacular, but what impressed me the most was that the bridge over the top of it was actually a traditional stone bridge and not a horrible metal modern one.

At the top there was a small area of birch woodland and in it there were a number of wild flowers like the dog violets and wood anemones. back at the river I spotted a dipper and followed it up although it eventually eluded me by moving to far up river, although I caught it as it was joined by its partner. I walked along the top of the valley where there was also some open woodland and on top of a Birch tree I spotted a willow warbler, which so far had been one of the most common birds all holiday.

Just a bit further down the track i spotted a chaffinch that had been collecting sheep's wool from the barbed wire and it looked rather comical, like the bird had a beard

further in the woods i spotted some more of the dog violets which seem to spring up everywhere, so i took some more photos of them, just for good measure.

And there were a blue tits and great tits and chaffinch's in the woods, adding to the wonderful noise of the woods. This blue tit was up to some stereotypical blue tit antics on this birch tree.

Near the end of the walk I heard a strange bird call which i did not recognise, not that, that is of any major incidence, but I managed to find the birds and took some quick photos. From the photos, I had a look to try and work out what it was, it appeared to be a stonechat so I moved to try and get a better view, but in doing so I spooked it because i trod on a twig or something that went snap and frightened it away. Back at the car I had another look at the photos to see if it rang any bells. It jumped straight out at me, It was a redstart! I don't know how I had not realised it, but now I felt a bit bad, Had I recognised it on site,i would have been able to appreciate it but no. Never mind, it is still a great bird to see.

I had to loiter around the car for a while because I had gone a different way to my mum and dad so I couldn't get into the car. When the eventually arrived they said that I should have a look at the cafe because There were some very tame chaffinchs there. As I walked over to it I spotted a bird doing a funny flight and call. I immediately wondered if it was a tree pipit because of photos I have seen of tree pipits doing this kind of flight but i couldn't be sure because of their identicalness with mipits and my poor identification of bird calls.

When I got back i realised my hunch was right because it flew from tree to tree rather than from ground to ground like a mipit. So there we have it a new tick for the holiday, which is a rare occurrence in lakeland. On the note of the chaffinches that lived there, I saw none because there were some kids with their dog being a pain, but never mind! Photos were running a bit low anyway. Back at the campsite I went for a walk along the lane because I had time to spare. I spotted a rook at the top of one of the decorative trees in the campsite and went to take some photos of it. It was quite obliging with the photos and so i managed to get some of the shots I wanted.

A bit further down the lane i found an entire rookery which had about 30 nests in it with rooks constantly coming in and out. This allowed me to get some acceptable shots of rooks in flight, although the light was annoying because of the lack of it due to the overcast weather.

A really good day, in terms of lake land, for birds and with a new bird in the bag its looking up for the holiday.

derbyshire-day 4 (today)

battle for sturvival-who will get the bread first, fish or canada goose
dipper
tufted duck underwater

this was all that i saw today