Colemere - Common Terns

The North Shropshire Meres are always worth a check when everywhere else is quiet as I dragged myself out for the first local birding in nearly a month! A Dunlin at Wood Lane plus a couple of Common Sandpipers were all the waders on offer and a surprise was in store at Colemere where three Common Terns were present......

It was raining and pretty gloomy reflective water which didn't exactly help as they flew quite close to the bank!

The only ray of hope was capturing them higher in flight with the trees on the far bank provifding the backdrop-.....

Eventually I got some shots worth keeping.......

They were constantly calling to each other......

And eventually, it brightened up a little - a banking manoeuvre gave the best opportunity of the session!

Somehow, my back stood up to the test (300mm lens only) . I could nearly be back in business ?

Mull - White tailed Eagle fishing!

A back injury has kept me out of circulation for over a week but I managed a relocation to Mull for convalescence :-) Luckily, the 300mm lens was more than enough for a boat trip encounter with White-tailed Eagles.

Mull Charters offer a unique opportunity to see them at close quarters from a boat, a fee meal never goes begging where lazy raptors are concerned!

The pressure is on to get things right - the most difficult being to ensure the wings weren't clipped by frame filling  'flying barn doors'!

After circling for a while, the Eagle gradually loses height......

Making fro some interesting banking manouvres!

With white sky being a huge problem it was quite a relief to see nearby hills give a much more pleasing backdrop....

Lower and lower with the green of the hills doing it's stuff!

And now - you can tell be the appearance of the water - very low indeed!

Level flight is achieved just above the water surface

And the talons creep forward

Getting ready to grasp

With a splash!

Then off to consume lunch.....

It was over in seconds and whilst most of my view was through the camera viewfinder - an absolutely amazing experience. Memo to self - a 200mm lens might make life easier next time!! Oh and another memo - bad backs and boats don't exactly go together well!

Mull - Hoodies!

My injured back meant that carrying gear was out of the question (and the rain didn't help!) Hooded Crow were just about everywhere and one or two had their picture taken from the car :-)

Coming closer....

Up in the mountains, this is Rock Dove country. Several were seen as fly pasts - a distant record shot of  one. Clean white underwing and white rump patch visible.....

Northern Brown Argus - Update

A rainy day! and then some... I caught up with another insect shoot - this time at Bishop Middleham and some cracking  Northern Brown Argus

Scroll down to the 19th June or check out the images here

Titterstone Clee - Scarce Blue Tails!!

I'd had a plant photo shoot for much of the day but with warm sunshine it seemed very sensible to check out Titterstone Clee to see if Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly were still around?

It was fairly quiet with just Large Red and Azure Damsels plus a male Broad-bodied Chaser until we stumbled upon what was clearly a mini-hotspot with immature male and female pumilio on the wing!

A repeat performance of last year, except here we had both sexes of ScarceBlue-tailed Damselfly in one session!

Ladies first (I flushed a bright orange teneral which we could relocate), this slightly more advanced female eventually posed!

And here is one of the the rather drab coloured immature males....

Male and female Azure Damselfly - again somewhat immature......

I've got a suspicion there's more to come:-)

Farnes Islands - update!

Whilst I've been keeping the 'rarity' side of birding up to date, there are a lot of 'historic' images slowly being caught up with!

If you want check out the first day of my North East Trip, either scroll down to the 17th June or click here