...But you can't make it drink

I missed more than I saw today at Prestwick carr but 80 Greylag and 16 Canada geese on the flooded pastures with 20 Wigeon and 70 Lapwing were good to see. (All counts approx as I'm a lazy sod sometimes)

somewhere

My brothers barge

you can lead a horse to water.....

a realistic scarecrow

Bigger waters

An attempt to do the circular walk around Big waters was stopped by high water levels, waders were required to access the hides. Wigeon were up to over fifty in number but other counts were down. The  highlight of the visit was a fine imm female Peragrine falcon flying over.

The island under water

The route to the top hide

End of the road

Swan in charge mode

Prestwick carr well flooded was host to 4 Ruff 2 Juv Grey plover and female Yellow wagtail.

4x4 used correctly

After the deluge

 Prestwick carr this morning and there is a lot of water lying I used my brothers 4x4 to get along.
The 'bumpy road is a mile long, about 3/4 is under water.

looking west

looking east

the new aquaduct

horses take the high ground

the goats are stranded

My mothers house would have flooded again if the levels rose 3 inches but luckily it was ok.

Waderfest

This beautiful day started at Big waters, Black necked grebe and Water rail the highlights. Then it was off to Arcot, lots of Teal and Coot and a newly hatched Little grebe chick  on the pond and 2 Great spotted woodpeckers in the trees. Next stop was St Mary's island, a small crowd staring at a stand of willows were looking for a Yellow browed warbler it showed briefly a couple of times. A walk down to the beach and it was waders galore, I managed to get close to Dunlin, Ringed plover, Sanderling, Turnstone  Barwit and Redshank . On the rocks Oiks, Golden plover and lapwing, also there  2 Sandwich terns.

Just another manic Med day

 Started the day at Big waters where AJJ found a 2nd winter Mediterranean Gull, got some distant record shots using my 140 times digital zoom.

Spent the afternoon making curry and it turned out well, then went down to the carr it was quiet but for 150 + Swallows some Redpoll and Willow tit.

Spot the Leo

 A quick visit to my mothers for a cup of tea saw Tree spuggy, Siskin and Greenfinch on her feeders.Then I went birding on the patch I served my time on, the Hawthorne there is just waiting for Redwing and Fieldfare to arrive. A closer look at one bush and two orange eyes stared back at me.

Tree sparrow

Siskin and Greenfinch

Spot the Long eared owl 

I can see you

 Those of you who know me will know where this is, but the behavior of a small minority of photographers stops me disclosing the sight.You know the type, no bins but tape lures and they are good at climbing fences. The type where the image captured is more important than the bird, tossers basically.

Hawk and Hawkers

On the start of a walk to Big waters watched the ploughing, this field had oil seed rape in it. When it was harvested it was very ripe and a lot of seed was dropped on the ground. A small flock of greenfinch and linnet was starting to build up, a shame the modern world can not afford winter stubble.

Stubble no more

Big waters was still home to a Black necked grebe, 80 or so Greylag, 45 Mute swans plus small numbers of ducks. Migrant hawkers were in evidence and a few Darters.Did not stay long as it looked like rain.

Darter

Sparrowhawk

A fine sparrowhawk landed on the weed in the pond after causing chaos in the feeding station.

Badger cull madness

Cattle can be vaccinated against TB a disease that takes sophisticated testing to discover in them. So why kill, not cull, kill, Badgers to try and control the disease.  Badgers have never been proven to transmit the disease to our very tasty herd of beef and dairy cattle and killing Brock in test areas prior to this proved nothing.

Dairy farmers would be better served by supermarkets paying a fair price for milk, than by  sadists who enjoy killing animals running amok in our countryside.

How do you ensure an area is cleared of badgers  elusive nocturnal creatures by nature? Shot at night by that pillar of society the lamper a clean kill is far from guaranteed, Disturbed badgers will disperse themselves widely spreading, if that's what they do, TB even further

A load of bull  

This expensive waste of life and money will do nothing except glorify the great white hunter and give an excuse to the sadist scum badger baiters to help out.

Naked action at Big waters

This canoeist walked across Brunswick beach naked but the camera was not handy 

A hippy

Howden blogger & AJJ plane spotting 

The new scrape taking shape

the grim reaper about to kill the hippy

geese flushed by tosser 

A work day today clearing the new scrape and the channel in front of the top hide. Apart from the easily distracted plane spotters in the work party there was me and a hard working hippy. Segadoonam warbler watched from the hide. 5 Curlew flew over B.N.G was still there 27 Pochard, 24 Canada geese and a little Water rail in the channel just after it was cut.

Oh deer me !

 It takes great skill and fieldcraft to get close to deer the stalkers tell you  I got this uncropped shot today with my bridge camera. Big waters was still home to Black necked grebe and 40+ Mute swans, Greylag Pink foot & Canada geese, Coot numbers up to 12 Pochard 20, & 2 Great crested grebe, 12+ Dabchicks. the woods held Willow tit 

The narrow clearing of reeds in front of the top hide was good for short glimpses of  4 Water rails 2 of them half grown, 1 an adult & the other an almost fully grown juv .

 Just in front of top hide BNG

This fawn was on the scrape

The murder of the shrews

A dead tame shrew

Another

Black necked grebe

Cute tree rat

autumn begins

yesterday on the track to Big waters found these 2 dead Water shrews I assume they killed each other as they were only a few feet apart. A Black necked grebe fed busily on the pond among the vigorous weed that the many Mute swans are feeding on. 40 Greylag and 7 Canada geese were among the slowly growing wildfowl numbers.