Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Earlier in the year I found what I thought may be a good nest hole for photographing Great Spotted Woodpeckers. A few weeks ago I returned & was pleased to see it was occupied. The farmer did'nt mind me putting a hide up and I watched & waited untill the young had hatched, and managed some nice shots of the parents taking food in. However timing is everything as on the Sunday morning the noisy chicks were being fed, I could'nt get there on the Monday and when I visited on Tuesday evening the nest was empty, and the farmer had let his cows into the field & they had trashed my hide! Hopefully the young had fledged successfully and were somewhere in the nearby woods.So no pics of the chicks with thier heads looking out being fed. Maybe next year.

Male at nest hole

Male at nest hole

Leaving the nest

Adult female

Adult male

Male feeding juvinile

Juvinile

A pair of Woodpeckers have been regular visitors to the peanut feeder in the garden and taking away mashed up nuts for ther young somewhere nearby, I thought they may come with the juviniles at some time , so set up a log which they would hopefully use, which they duly did & I managed a few O.K. photos , although it always seemed to be dark and rainy.

Black Headed Gulls courtship.

A few times each year we visit Joyces sister in Dursley in Gloucestershire which very conveniently is only a stones throw from Slimbridge, so while they go off shopping somewhere I spend a day at the WWT reserve. On this occasion there was'nt a lot to see from the hides so my usually ploy is to just stay in one place & see if anything comes to me, I chose the hide where a few Black Headed Gulls were starting to build nests and generally go about thier, what proved to be, very interesting courtship rituals.A lot of posturing & posing and gully shananingans played out in front of me. The pair I photographed here were unusual in that the male ( or I take it is the male ) presented his chosen mate with a whole Moorhen chick ,which it regurgitated and placed in front of her, she then picked it up ,carried it to the water , where she washed it , walked back to him , and ate it...the effort he made was worth it as they both flew a short distance and had sex, and I hope now are living happily ever after.

Supurb views of an Otter

While looking for Dippers from a bridge on a local  Cornish river , I caught sight of this Otter upstream, I waited to see if he would come towards me and was delighted when he came nearer..and nearer until he was swimming around in the clear water right below the bridge, just feet away, brilliant, I took a few photos but to be honest I was happy just watching the show .