Spoonbills at RSPB Burton Mere

 Hi everyone, in today's post we will look at some photos I took the other day at RSPB Burton Mere. 

When we got there we were told that there were about 12 -13 spoonbills at the border hide, the furthest hide from the entrance. The entrance looks over the whole reserve and we briefly saw them take off and settle back down again near the hide. Spoonbills are a very rare bird (in the UK) I had never seen before and were high on the list of ones I wanted to tick off. I didn't actually expect them to be there as that particular flock had been reported at another reserve further away over the last week or so. 

I speed walked ahead and after about 15 minutes got to the hide. Thankfully they were still there and I got some brilliant pictures of a bird I have always wanted to see:

You can see why they are called spoonbills. 

They weren't the only bird that I saw for the first time as on the other side of the pool there was a pair of green sandpipers. The photos aren't great as they were a long way away:

In the distance I spotted a (what I think was a juvenile) marsh harrier which then flew over and scared a few birds off the pool. It was super quick and was difficult to get good photos. I got one half decent one:

Here is another:

Here are some other photos I got from the border hide. They are of avocets and a little egret:

As we walked back we stopped off at some other hides but there wasn't much. However, while watching a great egret through the reedbed screen, I quickly saw a kingfisher dive in and out of the water. I managed to locate it on top of some reeds and got some brilliant photos. 

I can't decide what's better - the one in devon or these pictures. 

That's all for today's post. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading.

Heron on the Canal

 Here are some nice pictures of a grey heron seen on the canal:

Buzzard on Camera Trap

 I found a new spot overlooking a branch hoping to get some nice bird footage. We did get lots of squirrels and pigeons but by far the highlight was this brilliant shot of a buzzard!

Also got this video of a rat:

That's all for today's post. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading.

Fox Den

 This is a post I have meant to do for ages so its good to finally post it.  Today's footage is from about the span of a couple months or so, around april and may. I got a brillaint photo of the cubs when I sat out waiting for them but this post gives a bit more of an insight into what they do around their den. There's loads of footage of the parents going back and forth (although I think it might just be the vixen) and the cubs getting fed and playfighting that I could write loads about. However I think a lot of the footage explains itself, so I'm just going to post it all for you to enjoy. Some of the times/dates might be wrong so ignore them.

                               

                            

Here the adult brings nack some food:

Here it brings back what looks like a dead squirrel or rat:

                                
                                                               

                                                                             

         

Here they were playing with a huge rat:

That's all for today's post. It was only a bit of the footage as there was plenty more playing and other activity around the den. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Devon Deer

 I left my camera trap out in some woods in the devon countryside and I got loads of footage of a roe deer buck chasing about a female (normal behaviour in the rut). Ignore the times and dates as they are wrong. I also move the camera to a different location to the woods as you will see halfway through the clips. Here is the footage:

While checking on the camera over the week I saw the male deer twice. The first time I spooked it and it quickly ran away. The second time it was about ten metres away from me and then strolled deeper into the woods. I didn't have the camera with me but I went back to where we were staying and returned to the woods about an hour later with the camera. It didn't take me long to spot it sat down in a bush about 20-30 metres away:

This video shows you how far away it was:

I walked around a bit to get closer. It paid off, and I got my best ever deer shots. I'm so happy with them:

That's all for todays post. Thanks for reading!

The River Otter

Hi everyone, sorry that there hasn't been a post for a good while. Hopefully my next few posts will make up for the recent lack of them. I have four (including this one) coming soon so stay tuned for them. Anway, lets get into today's post.

Last week I was in Devon and there was one animal in particular that I wanted to see: wild beavers. About half an hour from where we were staying was the river otter, a UK hotspot for wild beavers. Beavers are very rare in the UK so we had to try our luck at spotting them there. The beavers here were reintroduced (they went extinct a few hundred years ago due to hunting) illegally in 2008 before more were legally introduced in 2015 in a government approved trial. The phrase 'beaver bombing' refers to the illegal release of beavers which has seen small numbers pop up all over the UK. Until this year due to new laws, it was extremely hard for legal releases of beavers to take place; most projects (such as the ones I've seen at Trentham) are ones that are released into large scale enclosures where they are techinichallly not wild but they live wild lives. Anyway, enough about the beavers for now as we saw lots of wildlife on the estuary before we made it onto the main stretch of the river otter. These next photos include some of the bird life we saw including egrets, cormorants, oystercatchers and others:

While we were sat behind a screen looking over a reedbed with more little egrets than I think I've ever seen before, something exciting happened. It wasn't beavers - two whimberels (a rare bird related to a curlew that I had never seen before) flew in and landed in amongst the reeds. I didn't get any great photos, but it was still great to tick a new bird off. 

After that we made it off the estuary and up the river. We walked up and down it for a good hour or so in the evening (beavers come out at dawn and dusk) but were pretty unsuccessful. We decided to sit and wait looking over a gap where you could see through the trees onto the river. This didn't work for the beavers, but we did get a glimpse of a kingfisher that landed on a post a good way away and I managed to finally get the shot I've been trying so hard to get for ages:

I was so happy to get this photo and seeing as it looked like we weren't going to see any beavers it still made the journey worthwhile. It was getting late and my mum started to walk back while I went a little bit further upstream for one last go at seeing something. However, after about five minutes my mum phoned me to say that she had found one, and I ran back all the way to where she was (I slowed down at the end so I didn't scare it). But by the time I had got there it had gone. And it didn't look like it was going to come out again. That was until it reappeared further upstream and I finally managed to see it! You could even hear it chomping on a twig. Here are the photos I got:

This is my favourite shot:

Here's another good one:

Seeing the beaver has been my favourite spot since the red squirrels in Scotland. It was great to see such a rare animal. That is all for today's post. Thanks for reading!