Out in the Spring Marshes

 

Some Spring-time views from Ham Wall - an RSPCA reserves in the Somerset levels and famous for its reed beds, and population of bitterns, which could be heard booming sonorously in the background hidden well out of sight. Marsh harriers could be seen flying low and fast over the reeds.  Here are some images - 

Great egret

Cormorants drying their wings.

Sleeping mute swans - is that a nest?

Egret high overhead.

A great crested grebe

A surprise sighting - a glossy ibis. Apparently there are a handful visiing the reserve at the moment.

A grebe inspecting the nest during the change-over of parents.

A coot taking nesting material to its nest.

Badger snacking!

Hello badger. It's a very cold and frosty night on the cusp of Spring but badger continues to come out, although not every night, and here in the last snippet of film, you will see she is not alone.

Hope

 

A short swan saga

It is a crisp January afternoon and I am admiring the view across the Dunedas aquaduct looking at the woodlands beyond as the sun starts to set.

 

Two young swans - still with some of their juvenile grey feathers - rush by swimmng fast.

Hard on the youngster's feathery heels are two adults. Their wings arched up in full threat posture.

Arched wings.

Once the juveniles are successfully chased around the curve and beyond what we can now assume is a boundary of the adults territory, they relax and turn around. 

They quietly swim back across the narrow aquaduct and into the even narrower channel that leads to what is left of the old Somerset Coal Canal.

Hopefully, come the Spring this bonded-pair will make a nest and produce some cygnets of their own, which later in the year they will also chase away.

Wells at Christmas

 

A stroll around the smallest city in England, Wells, at Christmas time -

The moat around the Bishop's Palace at dusk.

The moat's famous swans

The other bird common in the boat - Black-headed gull (winter plumage)

And in a quiet corner of the moat -

 - a little egrit

Nearby is the oldest street in Europe - an amazing medieval relic from more than 650 years ago that is still serving its original purpose -

The Vicar's close - providing homes for the cathedral choir.

And speaking of the cathedral - here is the central nave and a few internal details -

Well's cathedral nativity

Then comes the night -

And in the grounds of the Bishop's Palace after dark a sighting of a patronus -

Inside the Bishop's Palace after dark -

The upper banquetting hall ready for feast

A Boxing Day Walk - Bonchurch to Ventnor

It was a dull, cloudy December 26 but the sea was calm and so we walked along the seawall from Bonchurch to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Here are a few photos.

The most spectacular of the local birds is, Gulosus aristotelis, the European shag, a species of cormorant. 

Looking north from Bonchurch - several large vessels on the horizon.

A distant contrainer vessel

A rock pippit - part of a small flock - almost perfectly camouflaged.

Coastal defences to the east of Ventnor... the route to Bonchurch

Ventnor fishing fleet

Ventnor sea front