Sunday 18 November 2012

Whoopers, Pinkies and Greylags

This morning I visited one of my favourite nature reserves Martin Mere Wetlands and it brought some delightful bird life just like these wonderful Whooper Swans coming in to land.

This is one of the many families that floated serenely on top of the water.


There haven't been many Bewicks Swans about, but the ranger said they are yet to come.  It looked amazing when all the families of Swans were coming into land or take off.



Of course there were some individuals hanging about.



The rangers said there were about 10,000 Pink Footed Geese about at the moment and one day last week they had a flock of about 26,000 Wood Pigeon which doubled the number of birds on the reserve, 


There were plenty of Greylag Geese about, however there aren't as many as the PFG.


I do like PFG especially when they fly, even though they make a right raquet.


In this group all the PFG took of with a group of Lapwing.


Now of course I can't forget the waders, I saw Redshank and Ruff.


And a bird I could not miss, and the first time I have seen one, the Pintail.


Reed Buntings were busy on the feeders, they were quite tame as well.


The Heron was about, in fact he was right up next to the hide.


A brilliant, brilliant day.  Hope you all had a good weekend too.

 

29 comments:

  1. Wow Findlay, gorgeous collection of birds! Love the Whooper Swans and the pretty heron.

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  2. You saw some wonderful birds Findlay at one of my favourite places to visit at this time of year. The first flight shot of the Whoopers is fantastic.

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  3. Muy buenas las capturas Findlay.Saludos

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  4. looks like you had a full day. :)

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  5. Hi Findlay...These are fantastic photos!!The first one is so good!! You had a wonder day now didn't you..I am very impressed!! : )
    Grace

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  6. Great photos Findlay, glad you had a great time there, it's a brilliant place to visit

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  7. Sounds like a great day Findlay. Well done seeing your first Pintail, they are a really smart duck.

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  8. Excellent set of images and account of your day out Findlay. And a new life tick with that beautiful Pintail, well done!...[;o)

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  9. What a great day you had Findlay and such lovely birds and photos which look particularly beautiful when clicked on and enlarged. The Whoopers are beautiful, I never see them in my area so you are very lucky. Well done on the Pintsil too, a lovely duck to see. Love the photo of the Grey Heron, one of my favourite birds :-)

    I am very impressed you have your own garden hide, I know you will have lots of fun in there. When we had our garden shed erected we hid it so it would not look ugly in the garden but it means I can't see the bird feeders at all from it, I do wish I had thought about that!

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  10. Handsome birds in your world today, Findlay! Terrific captures as always and what a great day you had indeed!! Thanks for sharing these with us!! Have a great week!

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  11. Great variety there!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  12. Great post Findlay, when I saw the title I thought it must be Martin Mere. Its one of my favourite places, took Sharon a few weeks ago but not many Whoopers had arrived back, we need to get back there.

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  13. Fantastic photography of wonderful wildlife ~ beautiful ~ (A Creative Harbor) ^_^

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  14. Delightful shots of a great variety of birds.

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  15. Great variety of birds ..... i LOVE LOVE LOVE the Swans in flight :)

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  16. Excellent post Findlay. Martin Mere is a great reserve and I'm long overdue a return visit.

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  17. Lovely shots Findlay. Can't beat the Whoopers at Martin Mere. The male Pintail is a great shot too.

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  18. What a day! the swans are majestic but all the shots are great

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  19. Lovely pictures, Finlay!
    Like you I also like the swans a lot, but my favourite here is the heron, great shot!
    Greetings Pia

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  20. Great photos and a lot of very interesting birds to watch and photograph.

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  21. That is an interesting Heron. What is it? Great shots!

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  22. Fantastic flight shots! That swan is beautiful...I like the yellow on the bill. They're different from the swans here. Great heron photo, too!

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  23. Pin-tail are great birds - I remember the first one I saw - it was on a small lake on the outskirts of Newcastle. Great set of pictures.

    The bee-eaters are wonderful birds - and if you are lucky you can see them in the UK - there was one in Durham at the start of this month (although I only know this because I looked it up on the net!)

    Cheers and thanks for linking to WBW - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  24. These are wonderful captures, Findlay!

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  25. Findlay, thank you once again for a very informative article and wonderful photographs! I saw several Northern Pintail on the east coast of Florida (U.S.) last Friday but none were close enough to photograph. They look similar to yours. Good job!

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  26. Only just caught up with your blog Findlay as I've been without a computer for a few days. This is another super post from you, and it has inspired me (thank you) to put Martin Mere on my 'must visit' list - I have never been!

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  27. Wow, you did have a brilliant, brilliant day...what a wonderful selection of images you shared. Have a happy weekend~

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  28. Very great pictures ;-)
    Céline & Philippe

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