Sorry about the gap between Blogs but I have a little thing called work which is seriously interfering with my social life, also one of the Grandkids (he is 26) is staying (and staying and staying). On with the wildlife then.........
At the weekend I managed to fit in a couple of trips to Big Waters and even with the bad weather on Sunday a couple of hours in the hide was quite entertaining and we had some good views of Hawkers and Darters which I thought were probably going to be the last of the year until I saw the weather forecast for this weekend coming, although nowadays I take the word "Weather Forecast" and the phrase "Fairy Tale" to mean the same until I open the door each morning, look out and check that the Met Office is still only batting .28 on average. The Water Rails were also showing well with at least 4 being seen and one of them came into the Feeding Station and doing a couple of tours round lasting about 30 mins, unfortunately there was no photographers there, only Alan J and myself witnessed this. Otters were seen on both Saturday and Sunday also on Sunday a couple of us saw a Mink attempt to cross the dam in the channel, no wonder the birds on the pond were all over the place. Here are a couple of pics from the weekend along with a nice video.
At the weekend I managed to fit in a couple of trips to Big Waters and even with the bad weather on Sunday a couple of hours in the hide was quite entertaining and we had some good views of Hawkers and Darters which I thought were probably going to be the last of the year until I saw the weather forecast for this weekend coming, although nowadays I take the word "Weather Forecast" and the phrase "Fairy Tale" to mean the same until I open the door each morning, look out and check that the Met Office is still only batting .28 on average. The Water Rails were also showing well with at least 4 being seen and one of them came into the Feeding Station and doing a couple of tours round lasting about 30 mins, unfortunately there was no photographers there, only Alan J and myself witnessed this. Otters were seen on both Saturday and Sunday also on Sunday a couple of us saw a Mink attempt to cross the dam in the channel, no wonder the birds on the pond were all over the place. Here are a couple of pics from the weekend along with a nice video.
That horrible Mr Johnston gave me one of these berries and said they have quite a "unique" taste and he popped one into his mouth to demonstrate that they were OK but after a couple of seconds he turned away with such a contorted face (even worse than usual) that I decided to give it a miss as I had heard about his legendary taste receptors and olfactory perception (or lack of them) and I wanted to keep my tasting abilities as in my retirement I look forward to taking part in the UK version of the "Judgement of Paris" although I still haven't managed to get hold of a 73 Stags Leap Cabernet from Napa (yet).
Water Rail having a bit of a bath
Then sunning and preening itself
Taken from my back door at 06:30 on Sunday Morning
A Little Grebe with one of at least 10 fish I watched it catch in a 20 minute period
In a bit of a quandry, Otter to the North and Mink to the South
Water Rail on its 2nd lap of the feeding station
Finally a short video of a Water Rail preening
(For all you avid video fans (including you, Alan) a longer one will be published in a couple of days)
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