North pole... I mean Draycote Water

I got to the North Pole........ I mean Draycote at around 3pm. I climbed up the bank to find no Smew, oh well. The was no Diver.... Grrrr. I carried on walking to find at least sixty Meadow Pipits, YAY!
They darted all over the place, that didn't really help as the wind was so strong I could hear it blowing around me and my camera (as I was sat on the dam wall... Damn!) They showed well and noisily.
I also managed a couple of grebes.

Afternoon at Brandon Marsh

With my new lens (Sigma  120-400mm) I headed off to Brandon for an afternoon visit.
The first hide I got to was the Jon Baldwin. The was not much about apart from shovelers and Goldeneyes. I took some quick shots of them.

The Lapwings showed well as a Sparrowhawk spooked them and they all went crazy!

The rest of the day was spent sitting in the Carlton watching the starlings.

Two days in Bedfordshire

is the summer holidays and the weather is sticking up for me so why not go away for a couple of days. And so I did, to Bedfordshire. LUCKILY the weather was good over there, phew!

On the first day I headed over to Wicken Fen one of the most biggest and important wetland reserves in Europe. Ownd by the National trust. I walked for miles on that day and didn't really get a good shot. What I did like though is this muntjac deer that sneaked into a chicken coop to eat the chickens food.

two of the bird hides where elevated so you could see over the reserve, I got a distant marsh harrier from one of the tower hides but it was too far away for a decent shot so I made it into a landscape but it is still not worth a post. A Hobby turned up and grabbed a dragonfly and the next thing you know it was gone! In one of the tower hides a barn owl comes to roost but you don't often see it.

As I moved on I spotted a dragonfly eating a peacock butterfly, I just about got a head shot. 

To finish the day off I sat down at the feeding station at took some garden birds.

Day 2 -

After not getting many decent shots at wicken I thought I would try RSPB the lodge HQ. The last Time I went was two years ago and saw a very small amount of birds. As I got there I headed straight to the lavender where all the small whites where.      

I headed down the path towards the feeding station bird hide when I spotted something out the corner of my eye, I thought it was a moth but actually it was a brown argus!

The was nothing in the hides so I moved on.

On my way to the gardens I spotted a muntjac deer in the woods. 

                                                                      

In the gardens all I managed was an Emerald damselfly.

More images at Louis Bain flickr

A Rainy day in the allotments

Today I woke up rather early to go and do some birding in the over-grown allotments just behind my garden. I started off seeing no birds, it had rained in the night, the first time for around two weeks. It was now quite miserable and the sky was a light grey with no sun to be seen. managed to grab this ringlet on a vain of grass.

About an hour later a small skipper appeared, I managed to grab some OK shots.

As you can see, it started to brighten up, after a while. Expect some more soon.

The Brandon Kingfishers

I arrived at brandon at around 11am, in hope too see the kingfishers. I walked down the main path towards the meadows. When I finally reached the meadow It was swarming with banded damsels and commas. I soon reached the woodland area. Just as I got there not one but two Juvenile green woodpeckers flew overhead. Too high for photos. I finally came to the Steetley hide where I met up

with George. He had been too busy to notice me as the kingfisher was already sitting on the branch, I just maneged to grab a video and some shots of her with a young pike.

See's the fish

 With the catch

About to eat

Eaten and shaking off










www.flickr.com/photos/louispicss/ - more photos here