Trip Out!

As it was mentioned in the Echo Article - I thought I'd drop a few snaps in for all to enjoy.
We managed to organise a "Cromwell photo club" outing & Bacon butties + a walk round North Cave Wetlands started the morning off.
There wasn't too much opportunity for snaps, but decent birding all the way around the site.

I managed a couple of shots of the Mute Swans coming in.

 

Then we set off over to Blacktoft Sands where things picked up a bit for snapping away. After visiting a few hides & finding the water bare we thought it may not be such a great day. We had been in Marshland, Xerox & First hide, Anything we had seen on first look in - had disappeared on the second, things were not looking too good. We all sat down in Townsend & enjoyed the Duck that were there.

Plenty of Teal, Wigeon & Shoveler were present, then they all left, leaving the water bare .....

 

 

 

Shoveler's we were enjoying

 

A Pheasant that ran around in front of the hide.

 

A Wigeon floating about.

 

We then realised why so many pools were empty - Just as all the birds took off & flew to the left - These appeared from the right.

 

Marsh Harriers - cleared out every pool they flew over - but as they moved across the site the birds came back to get away from them.

 

We also had a Male Hen Harrier zip past around our lunch time, then later on something appeared & the sites Scope club claimed Merlin! :

 

Look sat there, miles away in the tree?

 

 

Sorry It's a bit hard to see isn't it?

I did a bit of fiddling with the picture, cropping, sharpening etc &

 

 

Presto - There that's a bit better - Record shot of a Female Merlin? To be Honest after further inspection I am not 100% convinced that this particular birdie isn't a Kestrel.

You can make your own minds up!

 

 

UPDATE ; 11/02/15
I was looking through the RSPB Blacktoft recent sightings & noticed an interesting Picture of something .....
As I don't believe in nicking others pictures here's a link to that particular report for 10th
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/blacktoftsands/b/blacktoftsands-blog/archive/2015/02/10/another-top-weekend.aspx

If you scroll down the page there is a Kestrel picture, & ignoring the poor light that day, you can compare the bird above to their Kestrel shot.

My Personal opinion - I think this is the same local bird a few weeks later under different light conditions.
But please do have your own opinion, with the extra evidence, it may be the same as mine .... or not!

Quiet today with the gale force winds, kestrel and flyover of geese at claremount and the usual finches, Heron, Cormorants and 7 Goosanders on the canal which i haven't seen before and the  usual crowd-:

Brighouse Garden

Female Blackcap on Christmas Day and Redwing feeding on berries

A few shots on my travels

Kenya 2014: Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara 3: Just Lions

      

                                                                      Juv Male Lion

                                                                           Ditto

                                                                            Ditto

                                                                      Lioness

                                                             Juv Male Lion

                                                                  Male Lion

                                                       Lioness with kill

                                                              Juv Male Lion

                                                         Lioness with male Lion

                                                        Juv male lion with kill

                                                                          Male lion

                                                                      Juv male lion

                                                        Lion and Lioness

                                                          Lioness with cubs

                                                               Lions mating

                                                         Male lion and Lioness

                                                         Male lion

                                                                     Lioness

                                                                      Lion cub

                                           Lioness showing off its lethal weapons

                                                            Juv male lion

Out of Africa 1: Lake Nakuru and the Maasai Mara

                                                       Kenyan Giraffe (Maasai Mara

                                                  Juvenile Male lion with kill

                                                      Kenyan Giraffe (Maasai Mara)

                                                    Rothchild's Giraffe (Lake Nakuru)

                                           Female Leopard being forced out of tree by male

                                                         Buffalo at Lake Nakuru

                                                   Waterbuck (Female) Lake Nakuru

Impala (M)       

I

                                       Juvenile Elephants greeting each other on Maasai Mara

                                                 Cheetah on the Maasai Mara

                                                         Female Cheetah with cub on M.M.

                             
                                                      Cheetah preparing to hunt on M.M.
                 

I accidently deleted the previous Out of African1 pictures so here they are again for anyone who wants to enjoy what for me was a great holiday, with a great group of people in a great country viewing some amazing wildlife. (James thanks for your comment on the previous Afric 1 pictures. If you drop me an email on wolfendenallan@hotmail.com I'll get in touch and send you the pictures I promised.