Mere Sands Wood 2
I'd been planning an early morning trip to Mere sands Wood to try and track down a Kingfisher for a few weeks now, and today was to be the day.
I arrived at 7.30am and had the place to myself. As soon as I'd walked into the first hide and stooped down to look out of the window, I saw one flying away, like a blue bullet, It was my first ever sighting and was very promising.
For the next half hour I walked around the woods and visited the hides on my route. There were many Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, Robins, Chaffinches and Tits, noisy Chiffchaff's, Crows and Magpies, a Jackdaw and some Dunnocks. On the lakes were 2 Mute Swans, plenty of Mallard with ducklings, Tufted ducks, Great Crested Grebe, 12 Shelduck and a small family of Little Grebe. Not to mention the Black headed Gulls, Lesser Black Backed Gulls and Herring gulls.
I reached the Rufford hide just after 8am, this is where the Kingfisher are usually seen, and there are three perching poles in front of the hide. I was joined by 2 other birders and we chatted away while we scanned the water. About 15 minutes later we saw a beautiful Jay land on one of the perches and have a look about. We all rattled off some photo's and the Jay took off as fast as he'd arrived. A stunning bird and my first ever sighting of one.
Another 15 minutes went by as we sat chatting about camera's and typically, we took our eye of the game as we examined a rather large lens belonging to one of the others in the hide, and the Kingfisher crept in unnoticed. Fortunately he was in no hurry and eventually someone looked up and half whispered, half gasped, it's here! We all rattled off pictures and sat admiring it for a good 10 minutes before it flew off.
Well worth getting up at 4am - my face is aching from grinning so much
I've posted pictures in the Mere Sands Wood album.
I arrived at 7.30am and had the place to myself. As soon as I'd walked into the first hide and stooped down to look out of the window, I saw one flying away, like a blue bullet, It was my first ever sighting and was very promising.
For the next half hour I walked around the woods and visited the hides on my route. There were many Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, Robins, Chaffinches and Tits, noisy Chiffchaff's, Crows and Magpies, a Jackdaw and some Dunnocks. On the lakes were 2 Mute Swans, plenty of Mallard with ducklings, Tufted ducks, Great Crested Grebe, 12 Shelduck and a small family of Little Grebe. Not to mention the Black headed Gulls, Lesser Black Backed Gulls and Herring gulls.
I reached the Rufford hide just after 8am, this is where the Kingfisher are usually seen, and there are three perching poles in front of the hide. I was joined by 2 other birders and we chatted away while we scanned the water. About 15 minutes later we saw a beautiful Jay land on one of the perches and have a look about. We all rattled off some photo's and the Jay took off as fast as he'd arrived. A stunning bird and my first ever sighting of one.
Another 15 minutes went by as we sat chatting about camera's and typically, we took our eye of the game as we examined a rather large lens belonging to one of the others in the hide, and the Kingfisher crept in unnoticed. Fortunately he was in no hurry and eventually someone looked up and half whispered, half gasped, it's here! We all rattled off pictures and sat admiring it for a good 10 minutes before it flew off.
Well worth getting up at 4am - my face is aching from grinning so much
I've posted pictures in the Mere Sands Wood album.
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