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.

Camera shy.

The lack of photographs is noticeable now as there are other considerations - guests come first and photo opportunities come second. I had a bit of a run out to see if there were any Northern Wheatear sneaking about - 3 different locations turned up a blank! The only consolation was a very nice Mountain Hare. The beast was a bit distant but it shows off the length of the legs, size of the feet and the colour.

There were some nice birds seen on the next tour but a lot of them were camera shy. The likes of Stonechat and Common Snipe were seen at close quarters but there was no chance of photos as they were too close to point the camera at.  A couple of Yellowhammer were a bit more obliging but spent most of their time hiding behind the branches until one of them came into the open - it must be worried about appearing on crimewatch as it wouldn't show it's face!

The Adders seem to have left the hibernating area now and there was no sighting of them but I did find a freshly shed skin. The Hen Harriers performed well with a bit of display going on and a Golden Eagle that was picked up in the distance did the right thing and came in for a closer view of us.

The WT Eagle on the nest was backed up by a couple of birds in flight and the roadworks were avoided by stopping for lunch while viewing an Otter.

Grand finale.

The usual special requests for the tour were picked up pretty quick. We had a nice close encounter with 2 Otters to start the day.

WT Eagle was a doddle as we viewed a bird on the nest but the one that flew over us later in the day was a lot better!

A distant Golden Eagle completed the main attractions. One male and two female Hen Harrier put on a bit of a show and another female harrier was seen at a different location. It was a bit of a raptor day all round as our next stop produced 1 Golden Eagle and another 3 Hen Harrier. There were plenty of other sightings through the day but the grand finale was a bit special...2 male and 4 female Hen Harrier, 1 Golden Eagle and six WT Eagle in a half hour spell!
I have had some decent views of the pale Buzzard...

...but close up stags are not as easy up to now.