Collared Pratincole

= massive dip.

Moving swiftly on, these little stunners made the afternoon that little bit less disappointing:

Stonechat pair

It took a great deal of waiting to get a shot with them next to each other and with an aesthetically pleasing natural background. It's a shame the green tinge at the bottom of the shot didn't extend to the top (where the colour of the sky dominates) as the pale blue doesn't look quite right to me. Still, I'm rather pleased with it.

The female bird was more obliging than the male and came quite close a few times:

Cute fledgling things!

I've seen a few fledged birds lately including Robin and Song Thrush in the garden as well as Moorhen, Mallard, and Canada Goose chicks all on or near to BHM. Here's a pic of one of the Mallard chicks:

Natural colour

Black & White version was an arty contrasty aesthetic

Black & White composite image (unlike me but I thought I'd give it a go)

A VERY unusual sighting along the River Coly

I popped down the River Coly for a short walk after work; the aim was to catch up with the Dippers but I soon got distracted by something else... a Common Sandpiper! Not a rare bird, no, but the first one I've seen on the Coly for maybe 5 or 6 years so it was wonderful to see. Here's one of the pics of it:

More from the Patch...

...and it is still all rather quiet. I've seen 2 Whimbrel around the Axe Estuary but they move around a lot, and now 2 Sedge Warblers around Black Hole Marsh. A White Wagtail amongst the Pied Wagtails was good to see, as were a mixed flock of 70 or so House Martin, Sand Martin and Swallow. Here's a few pics, underwhelming as they are!

Grey Heron with a fishy catch

A pic from the River Coly taken this evening:

Exhibition Photos

I've added a Lapwing pic to my Exhibition page (tab underneath the header of the blog, or just click here) and also changed the black and white Wood Sandpiper pic for this colour version:

My display is now back up in Liddons Tearoom in Colyton! Exciting times... let's see how much interest they gain this year; they certainly do look more 'professional' in the new mount and frame types. This is the smaller section of the display:

I'm hoping that this is going to be another good year for photographs on patch, as my patch is likely to change in the not too distant future... Time will tell, regarding both topic aspects of that last sentence.

OSPREY fishing on the Axe

I spent most of the afternoon watching over the River Axe hoping that an Osprey would pass through but eventually gave up and went home. Before I stepped out of my car, I received a text from Bun saying that there was an osprey at Coly Common so I quickly rushed back, but by this time it had already moved on northwards. UNTIL...

Little Ringed Plover 2nd of the Spring

I popped to Black Hole Marsh after work to see if there was anything about and found this lovely Little Ringed Plover. I sent the message out and Sue Smith was soon on the scene; unfortunately the bird had moved further away by this time. Here's a few snaps:

Great Spotted Cuckoo, another pic

GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO IN DEVON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many thanks to the couple who found this stunning bird on patch at Branscombe this afternoon; I caught up with it later after Bun had relocated it at Beer Head. I'm very busy so I'll just put up the one pic for people to see! I took quite a few so I'll upload more soon. Let's hope that this one survives!