UKC

Dropping down from the bealach I spotted a small heard of Red Deer. Later on, as I looked over the lochan, an otter. And then I saw an Osprey circling. It got nearer, and nearer, then farther away, then it hovered and dove and splash and perch!!  And plenty more. You can’t beat a day out at Bogach n Leighton, in McLancashire

Osprey, tawny owlet and bittern. Plenty more to come but I’m goosed and getting psyched for Eurovision. Finland to win, Ukraine in top five and UK in top ten. Please. Pretty please.  

The bittern is amazing, catching it in flight like that.

More great shots. You seem to support my theory that some people only have to walk out of the house and some remarkable bird is attracted to them. An old pal of mine has the same ability. All I get is a wood pigeon.

I'm in the real McScotland and haven't seen anything much. Saw a chewed tree stump which might have been by a beaver.

I think I'm going to have to renew my threat to start stalking BC (full body armour required? 🤣)

At one RSPB reserve they actively manage which trees to protect and the rest are left to beavers’ choice. They can easily fell large trees. There are two lodges on the loch so I guess quite a few beavers resident (not that I’ve seen any yet).

The reserve has three hides built on wooden silts and I often wonder if the beavers have a wee gnaw at the foundations in the passing 🤣. 

Even if you followed BC I still reckon he would see more birds and get more photos! 🫣

BC?

Bearded collie?

:-}

Watched a couple of pairs of great crested grebes doing their thing. And this cracking mute swan. 

At one point I was hurriedly deleting photos to make room on the card and accidentally deleted a few good Osprey ones. And when I looked up, noticed that a pair of grebes had been displaying really close to the hide!  By the time I got my camera ready they started to swim away. 

Wren and Cetti’s. Never seen one as close and in the open as this. As I was taking photos of it a group of RSPB explorers joined me, and their guide/warden was fully kitted out with sound recording gear - they weee doing a dawn chorus thing. He also said he’d never known as many. Yetis give such good views. Also saw a little gull, two more bitterns (one could have been same bird), marsh harrier with prey (coot chick I reckon) and plenty of other stuff.

Sadly, lots of dead black headed gulls - over 10 at the breeding colony - avian flu. 

Nice series of photos once again.

Last week in my haste, I deleted 246 photos without thinking 🫣. It was only after I had overwritten them with that day’s photos I remembered I hadn’t transferred the previously taken photos to the laptop!

Whoops!  

Only ever had one good view of a Cetti's, at Pennington Flash. More normal view is little brown bird flies past "what was that", and then suspecting (with high but not complete certainty) that it was a Cetti because the call's gone from my right to my left, etc.

Heard them (not seen) in the Hula reserve as well unless it was one of the unidentified little brown birds I briefly glimpsed. But the problem there (an example) for me at least. Plain little brown bird sitting in the reeds not singing - could be a Reed Warbler, in the UK I'd be going that way because Marsh Warblers are very uncommon. Are they uncommon here? dunno, are there any other similar warblers down here? dunno. I'll have to look them all up, damn it's flown off before I've properly seen any identifying features. Rather than just feeling a bit out of my depth, it was like a bottomless ocean. Still, things like the cluster of Black-winged Stilts looked mighty fine 😁

Next time, I will be more prepared and will have done some homework.

Great view of a singing Sedge Warbler today - most obliging (and some Hobbys).