Marmite Moment

I’m not sure if it is the cold spring or some other factor but there has been a good showing of Wild Garlic of late. The scent on the air hits you as you walk past. It’s on of those ‘Marmite’ moments you either hate it or you love it.

The smallest of cracks in a tree

A few weeks ago we were pointed in the direction of a Treecreeper’s nest.

It never ceases to amaze me how small a gap these little birds can get into; just a slither of an opening, into the tiniest cavity behind bark. In they flew with beaks full of insects and out they flew with a faecal sac; as fast as lightening, making any chance of a decent photo very limited indeed.
The nest and emergent Treecreeper is pictured below.

Let’s go fly a …

Last weekend the Wildlife Tours and Education trip to Wales enjoyed some great weather. Chough, Peregrine, Dipper, Redstart, Pied & Spotted Flycatchers, Wood Warblers and even a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker were all on the agenda as well as many more species.

There was a time when there were very few Red Kites in the UK. I estimated we saw around 250 or more through the weekend including this one which twisted and turned in front of us among many others. Red Kites are just the best.

As always click to enlarge.

Some are easy others are hard work.

The Crow family are highly intelligent creatures. Although they normally avoid human contact they can usually be approached by using a vehicle as a hide. In Scotland last month we got reasonably close to several Hooded Crows but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been. The bird that shouldn’t have been easy was the Black throated Diver we encountered at the side of an ‘A’ road casually fishing a few metres away in a loch. These are normally shy birds of remote highland waters or the open sea but this individual was keen on giving us all close views as we passed in the vehicle*

*All species of diver on the British List are schedule one species and therefore may not be photographed at or close to the nest without a licence.

Just when you’re thinking about lighting the candles …

As part of the recent short week in Scotland for Birders Tour we went on a short boat trip. Although the wind had been worryingly high in preceding days the bay where we sailed was sheltered. Gannets, Basking Sharks, Great Skuas, all the Auks including Black Guillemot were present … at close range.
You would have thought that with the addition of two White tailed Eagles and a Golden Eagle floating high above us the icing was already on the cake … until this happened.