UK Wildlife Blog

The males were just coming out of eclipse (ie moulting back into their pretty winter plumage)

There were plenty of females too

There were all sorts of gadwall preening and washing going on

There was also a juvenile moorhen that seemed to in the process of growuing his flight feathers

We visited the kingfisher hide, but the family had fledged days earlier. We did see a nice grey heron

And some moorhens

We walked up to the otter walk but we had to leave it since the reserve may have closed by the time we made it back (especially with someone stopping to photograph stuff...). We did come across a couple of things on the way. This dark(?) bush cricket

And this lovely flower, which unfortunately is of the highly invasive himalayan balsam


In the first hide, which was too busy on the first pass we had a nice, if pretty distant, view of a snipe

Which stood next to a coot, which shows how small they are

A little grebe also swam by pretty close

There was also a gutting moment when a kingfisher perch right in front of the hide for a good 30secs but down at an awkward angle. I had to stand up and politely ask someone to move a bit and focused and...


it flew off!!

Ill get one of those blue flashing what-ya-call-its one day!