Thursday 25 August 2011

A morning at the Curlew Hide - Teifi Marshes

Sunny morning so decided to spend some time down on the Teifi. On the way in saw a Little Egret. During the morning saw the juvenile Great Crested Grebe again - this time a bit closer and with better light:


We also saw three snipe in the short reeds in front of the hide, a curlew, grey heron, cormorant - all making up a very good morning's photography. Then to make it brilliant we came across two young otters - later joined by their mother at the sluice gate by the Cardigan entrance to the reserve:




Monday 22 August 2011

What is this bird?

It was sunny this morning after the mist had lifted so we went to the Creek Hide to see if we could get a view of the Water Rail. No luck - only the moorhen were on show. On the way back to the car we stopped off at the Curlew Hide - there were a couple of little egrets about but not close in. Then we saw this bird swimming near the opposite bank. It behaved like a cormorant - diving and presumably fishing. Open to suggestions as to what the bird is:

 
Richard D tells me that this is a juvenile Great Crested Grebe. Apparently this is unusual for the Teifi at this time of the year.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Kingfisher back at Creek Hide

Have not seen a kingfisher close enough to photograph for over a year so it was wonderful to see this bird today at the Creek Hide. Also present a couple of hundred Canada Geese, many mallard, some Teal, a coot (unusual for Creek Hide) and a single Little Grebe - so a good day. The kingfisher made it a wonderful day:



Wednesday 3 August 2011

Hornet in our garden?

This insect came in to our garden this morning for a drink. It looks unusual and Jen hopes that is a 'very rare' visitor!! Is it a hornet?


Update: Janet tells meIt`s a horsefly called Tabanus sudeticus and it``s got a very ferocious bite!

Monday 1 August 2011

A Sandwich Tern at Ynslas

Afer seeing the photographs of sandwich terns by Janet Baxter on the Ceredigion Birds blog I decided to go up there and look for them myself. I managed some images, the best of which was this one:


Taken with my new Canon 7d, the 500lens with 1.4 converter - ISO1000 f8 @ 1/3200sec.