Too large a fish and a different goose

Not much about yesterday afternoon on the river except this cormorant which took on a bit too much with this fish and despite a brief struggle was unable to hold on to it.  Not sure how it would have swallowed it!

On Black hole marsh this morning was this egyptian goose

Shame about the post

This last week has seen the arrival of quite a few sedge warblers in full voice on Black hole marsh

An innocent mallard and her ducklings were persistantly being attacked by 2 aggressive shellducks on Black hole marsh early this morning

Also this week have seen some nice male reed buntings.  This one was with a female 

Back to yesterday and there were 2 dunlin on black hole marsh in the afternoon but not much else apart from the usual black tailed godwits

And finally some very poor pictures of a lesser whitethroat near Bridge marsh.  Thanks to Phil for finding it.

Portland gannets, little owl, skylarks and puffin!

A trip to Portland on Monday for 7 of us organised by Ian Waite was a great success despite there not being much variety of grounded migrants.  A very enjoyable day with good weather started with some nice gannets flying east relatively close in

The little owl showed well on 2 occasions

Plenty of beautiful displaying skylarks were in the grass and flying above

I then managed to catch a puffin flying toward the cliff.  Sheer luck I have to admit.  Shame I was so far back from the edge (not good with heights!) otherwise I could have got it much closer as it flew in

There were plenty of wheatears coming in off the sea; a few stonechats and linnets were perched on the bushes and many swallows were passing through flying close to the ground a few at a time

There were a lot of razorbills on the sea but not that many guillemots

And finally a couple of my attempts at photographing flying singing skylarks but unfortunately any blue skies had gone by then

Red kite, whimbrel and an ambitious robin

How I wished that I had been on Black hole marsh this morning instead of Coronation corner when I saw this beautiful red kite just gliding across the Tower hide.  After a minor panic with an unco-operative lens I did manage a couple of pictures as it turned and headed north up the estuary.  What a wonderful sight - I so wish we had more.

I then wandered down to Seaton marshes where there were 4 wheatears and a pair of whimbrel on the main scrape.   Although a long way away the light was perfect so the photos came out pretty well considering the distance.

A couple of in flight shots as they flew over me calling as I walked back down the path

And finally I think this robin was being a bit ambitious as despite all it was carrying it was still trying to collect more!

Two little gems

This morning started well with 4 to 5 wheatears on nearly every island on Black hole marsh and then suddenly there was a flash of yellow!   The first gem of the day.  A stunning yellow wagtail was flitting around one of the islands with the wheatears.

The second gem was thanks to Steve who found this beautiful male pied flycatcher on Seaton marshes this afternoon.

This could have been a good photo!

Finally 13 of the 15 ducklings with this mallard on Black hole marsh this morning