Somerset beauties - Pied-billed and displaying great crested gebes

I had been longing to see Somersets pied-billed grebe so when the opportunity arose we set off on tuesday in the hope that we would get some nice close views.  We were in luck after only 20 to 30 minutes.  While listening to its monkey like call as it appeared to be answering the little grebes that were calling it suddenly popped up in a channel close by.  Not content with that shortly after it came and posed in front of us for a good 10 minutes or so much to the delight of all there.  I make no excuse for the high number of photos that follow!   Prior to this I had been to Chard and much to my delight the great crested grebes were displaying and dancing close by.   Naturally I could not resist a few photos of these either.

The male marsh harrier gave us some wonderful views though rather distant for my camera.

Something different

A bit warmer today and nice to see a few different birds on Seaton marshes.  A nice chiffchaff and a pair of stonechats were showing nicely on the way down to the hide.

A pair of gadwall were on the scrape along with a shoveler though rather distant for photos

Shame this sparrowhawk decided to veer left at the last moment

A fed up looking curlew

and a dunnock singing beautifully in the sun

Yesterday the godwits on the river were performing well and venturing quite close so had to take a few photos

Much to cold!

To cold for me to go over the marshes so a trip to Seaton to play bowls, (indoor), was as far as I ventured this morning.  This was followed by a trip to Tesco so that was exciting.

Apart from our 2 star birds there was not much about last week and the light was fairly poor most of the time.  However I still managed a few photos of some of our resident birds as you can see plus here are a few more spoonbill photos and the avocet.  I love the little grebe which seemed quite fascinated by the spoonbill.

Spoonbill and avocet

A message this morning had me out before my breakfast!  Hard for me (I do like my breakfast) but well worth it.  The spoonbill was posing nicely on Black Hole marsh. 

And later after lunch the avocet showed nicely in front of Seaton hide

and the spoonbill was present on the scrape.  Although a bit further away than this morning could not resist a few more photos.