We were excited to hear four fly high overhead as soon as we stepped onto the Somerset reserve, but they were going the other way and we were informed by a helpful couple of birders that they had just been showing for an hour and were very close up...
So with our expectations dashed, we were surprised and delighted to see a number of individuals still pecking up the shells on the boardwalk, as hoped, and eventually we saw three pairs altogether.
Over the day we found beardies at three totally separate and distinct locations on our travels around Westhay SWT and Wall Hall RSPB reserves.
I had to get down very low to capture these beauties as I wanted, but it was worth it.
Other sightings were as expected: the back end of a bittern, marsh harriers, GW egrets, lapwings and ducks - no glossy ibis this time.
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| Distant marsh harriers |
Amazing to see them being so co-operative with the photographer, usually I only see a brief flash disappearing into the reedbed, never to re-appear. They don't look very comfortable perched on the ground, do they? Yet so agile hanging on to reeds.
ReplyDeleteThey are quite habituated to people here feeding off shell to help digest seeds. Every local birder have the same images...
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