Peregrine Falcon

My Nemesis Bird has been photographed by me at last.

In the Town were I have lived for four years there are several churches. On two of them, regular sightings of a pair of Peregrine Falcons have been made. In fact they are known to have taken up residence there for some time now. I speak regularly with several local Nature Photographers that have taken many shots of them. Every time I go looking for them, they are not there. 

Fortunately today a local Birding Colleague kindly contacted me and said that the birds were in residence. So I hot footed it to the location and sure enough on this occasion they were still there.

It was an awkward shooting angle, the light could have been better and I only had my oldest camera. However, who cares as I got the shots.

Male

Female

 

A Bold Egret

I did not expect to see anything different or of interest, when I went for this local walk out on the Northern edge of the town. It was quite a strong wind and rain threatened most of the time.

Walking along a footpath by the river I was surprised to see ahead of me a Little Egret strutting about the path. He seemed rather interested in a small ditch that runs along side the river. The ditch is a run off from the adjacent river. Under normal circumstances this Egret would have flown away from that location as soon as it had seen me. Beyond the Egret there was a family sitting on a bench. 

The Egret then flew just up into a tree, perching no more than 3 metres from the ground.

It was quite happy for me to walk up to it and take these images.

It continued to look down into the ditch below. 

There was obviously something there that it was interested in. 

The Egret then dropped down into the ditch. 

I had to relocate to be able to see it and take these images.

I could see a small fish in its beak.

Searching around it found a much larger fish. 

Then it flew over into the adjacent field.

Just goes to show that you should not go out thinking you would not see anything of interest.

More Nature from the Local Walks

Carder Bees visiting the flower of the invasive Himalayan Balsam.

These daisies grow on the side of a wall that forms one side of the River Frome flowing through the edge of  Town.  

Robins are again beginning to look at their best after the breeding season.

The Comma Butterfly (below) and the Red Admiral (see further below) are two species that can be easily found on the Bramble bush at this time. They love the goodness they get from the blackberries.

An eclipse male Mallard.

Red Admiral Butterfly

Another sign of the impending Autumn.

A female Mallard preening her feathers.