End of February

Can you believe February is history already?! There is nothing exciting happening on the wildlife front except that slow crawl into spring. There is something new every day - it might be another species of bird bursting into song, the Collared Doves getting frisky or the Crossbills eating shells on the shore!

You can't fail to be impressed with the splendid male Red-breasted Merganser - he has already won his mate.

I have seen my first bunch of frogspawn at the end of February plus the Primroses are starting to emerge.

The Treecreeper becomes more obvious for us during February and it's nice to get a shot of one being the tree mouse and scampering up the tree trunks.

The WT Eagle will soon be on the nest so they have less of the wanderlust and spent quite a bit of time flying around together.

I have seen quite a bit of this young Golden Eagle over the winter and it seems to like stirring up the Buzzards - come on if you think you're hard enough!

The year list stands at 89 species while PWC scores are 61 species and 73 points.

Waiting

I found this Pied Wagtail sitting on the roof of the bus stop - I don't think it was waiting for a bus.

A pair of Reed Bunting were hanging round a cattle feeder - he looks like he is trying to impress the female bird by raising the crown feathers.

A GN Diver caught my eye but as it moved away I could see a Guillemot coming in a bit closer. There was no cover so it was never going to be good - just sit and wait.

A pair of Golden Eagle were seen flying around together while a pair of WT Eagle were sitting in a tree. The WT Eagles were quite vocal...

...probably because of the pesky Buzzard. They certainly make the Buzzard look small.

The birds were seen to mate before flying off. Nothing left to photograph but the Primroses!

Ton of birds and some flowers.

Left to my own devices and in charge of a camera I was out there snapping away at anything that would stay still long enough. I started off with this Common Gull...

...and that was almost the extent of the birds. There was plenty to be seen but I got distracted by a bleating lamb...

...who then started to gambol. Note to Postie - all four feet off the ground;-)

The flowers have been catching my eye for a couple of weeks now so I thought I might as well have a go at them too. Lesser Celandine is starting to carpet the ground in places.

A bankside full of Primroses always looks spectacular but you can't get a poor display of this stunner.

I had a look around for Butterwort but they are not even budding yet so I had to settle for Pale Butterwort instead.

Oh look, a bird, quick with the camera - or not - Meadow Pipit wins again.

 

Wood Sorrel hides in the shady spots so it was a bit tricky to get this one...

...but then I found some in the sunshine.

Another bird distraction was this young WT Eagle flying over. You can see it's sporting wing tags so it's an east coast bird

Ton of birds, what's that about...Goldcrest was my one hundreth species for the year.

Another plant that will soon be in flower is the Wild Strawberry.

Just to finish with a bird - this is one of many Pied Wagtails around but all of them are male, I've not seen a female of the species yet.

Bits and bobs.

Just a few things that have been catching the eye over the last week or so. There is plenty of new life around with lots of lambs and a few calves around too. This calf was just taking it's first steps on wobbly legs but managed to get behind the clump of sedge before the camera was trained on it!

The Primroses are out and providing a nice splash of colour in the brown winter landscape.

I've checked on the Adders a few times now and I've had up to three at the moment. I did get images of the head pattern on this one...

...and this one which is definitely one I photographed last year.

The Long-tailed Tit photo that featured in a recent post was taken off island so it was nice to catch up with this little  cracker after viewing the snakes.

Everybodies favourite hate - Hooded Crow. Looks stunning in the sunshine though...

...and an Otter swimming past just behind.