Black Hole Marsh update - Pics

I've been struggling to get out lately but I have holiday to use from work this month and I'm determined to use it for birding/photography rather than working one of my other jobs! Black Hole Marsh continues to provide great photographic opportunities; a Kestrel hovering close in was nice to see:

There has also been 3 - 4 Yellow Wagtails joining the roost of Pied Wagtails on Black Hole Marsh each evening. Shots are a bit ropey as the birds come in to roost when it's fairly dull/dark. Still, good to see these characterful Wags:

Kingfishers Battling - the intensity increases...

Lots more pics from this scrap to follow; it was a fight to near death as the birds tried to drown each other for over 5 minutes. This pic was taken as the challenger first approached the bird already perched on the stump:

So the birds improve...

There's been a lot more of interest around the Axe the last couple of days. I heard Spotted Redshank yesterday whilst I was in Island hide, and sure enough one soon dropped in to Black Hole Marsh. This bird was then joined by another; a juv and a cracking adult. Also Common Tern, Med Gull, Yellow Legged Gull, Ruff, Greenshank, Yellow Wags and battling Kingfishers are all adding to the interest. Here's a couple of pics. So much more to get on the blog when time allows it!!

Greenshank

Ruff

Kingfisher Emerging from the Water (Pics, and waders)

I'm pretty tolerant of bad weather when it comes to wildlife and photography, but today was simply a no-go with the persistent heavy rain. Here's a few pics from recent trips to Black Hole Marsh; there are lots to sort through as the Osprey and Great White Egret took priority on recent posts!

Enjoy:

Greenshank

Ruff

Kingfishers fighting - Pics

SPECTACULAR birding on the Axe. Best day of the year??

With yesterday's Great White Egret seemingly spending the evening in the area, I went to Black Hole Marsh for 06:30 this morning. It was a bloody good job I did too! I had good views of the G W Egret from Tower Hide for about 10 mins (took me a while to locate it) before it flew high and South at 07:20. Fantastic bird, and I had it all to myself as nobody else fancied the morning stint (excuse the pun) at the marsh.

After a successful hour birding I went to work in a good mood. As soon as I'd finished I headed back out with the camera; target species was Osprey. I still haven't seen the Osprey fishing yet but did locate it on a post eating a fish. Using the car as a hide, I drove down a lane and set up quite distantly, perhaps 200-300 yards away. After a few minutes watching, the Osprey looked shifty so I prepared for some action shots (crank the ISO and the shutter speed settings up on the camera) and sure enough it took off. It then flew straight towards me until it was within 100 yards or so; still pretty distant but the pics came out okay considering the conditions. One of my favourite birds to photograph... There are more pics to come from today; I also had a Hobby perform a couple of fly-bys in the evening, as well as a posing Kingfisher. Those can be saved for another post; for now please enjoy these:

GREAT WHITE EGRET & OSPREY at River Axe

What a fantastic day! After receiving news that a Great White Egret had flown south over Black Hole Marsh, I resisted getting my hopes up. BUT the next message which was only a few minutes later stated that the bird was ON Black Hole Marsh. So I dropped everything at work and popped out for a couple of hours; needless to say it had moved when I got there. This was a shame as such a big bird on BHM would have allowed good pics regardless of where about on the marsh it was perched. I eventually caught up with the bird on Colyford Marsh but it was pretty distant; just as well it's big then!

A bonus was a brief glimpse of an Osprey flying upriver with a fish.

I popped back out in the evening after work to see if the GW Egret was still about. It was... as was an Osprey perched in a tree... More pics to follow.