Surprise

A quick trip out turned up a nice surprise. There wasn't much around when I parked the motor, a few Common Snipe had come out of the iris bed at the side of the road so I thought I'd scan around to see if there were any more. I put the bins up to look at a small wet area and there was a bird bobbing up and down in the irises - Common Snipe don't do that so it had to be a Jack Snipe but I couldn't see much of the bird. I stepped out of the motor with the camera, pointed it in the right direction and managed to get a couple of snaps.

A run out with Aly and Dave the following day turned up another surprise. A pair of RB Merg were quickly followed by a pair of Northern Wheatear. The female bird was the first one I'd seen this season...

...and the male was doing his best to win her over.

A herd of Red Deer were seen and a small group of stags before we had some stunning views of White-tailed Eagle.

This Adder is lucky to be alive as I nearly ran it over!

A Golden Eagle was flying around as we parked up for lunch - I was a bit slow with the camera though.

A bit of a search around gave us views of another three Adders including this handsome beast.

A trip to the beach produced good views of Rock Pipit...

...and a pair of Shelduck - that's a seriously square head!

Another beach visit gave us Common and Grey Seal, Reed Bunting, Skylark and then this stunner dropped in beside us. This Lapland Bunting was real surprise and a pleasure to see at close quarters.

We had to search around for the Mountain Hares and we found three distant ones - this one was close to the motor when we returned!