FINDLAY'S DAY.

Last Sunday I, along with a group of  other bloggers and friends, had the pleasure of being invited to a surprise get together to celebrate the 11th. birthday of a remarkable young man by the name of Findlay Wilde. Findlay's knowledge and  passion for anything to do with birds and birding is astounding, and a credit,  for someone of so few years.  I'm sure  we're going to hear the name Findlay Wilde more and more as he goes on to achieve great things in the birding world.

Whilst there Findlay took us all on a guided walk around his local patch, including a stretch along the banks of the River Weaver, where we were  treated to good, and prolonged, views of a beautiful Kingfisher ( thanks for arranging that for us Findlay!!) of which many photographs were taken, and prompting Findlay to later come up with the idea that we should all do a post of our best shots.

So here goes!... my best(!!) shots for the inaugural ....Findlay Wilde Birthday Celebration Photographic Competition.

Now, people photography is not my thing so (much to my regret) I didn't take any pictures to record the day, however, a few of the others did and if you haven't seen them already you can view their excellent accounts of the day here.... Findlay, Keith and Andrew

It was great to meet up with fellow, like minded, bloggers and friends of Findlay and his family and a big thank you goes out to Findlay's mum and dad Heather and Nigel (great stew!), and Harley, Findlay's younger brother, who gave us a stunning  recital on his electric guitar, (a mega pop star in the making?) for inviting us into their home and  for putting up with us all for the day!

It was a truly wonderful and enjoyable day and I hope to meet up with you all again soon.

Wet start to a great day

Last Monday morning dawned grey and wet (it had rained all night) as me and Keith made an early start to visit the RSPB Rye Meads reserve in Hertfordshire. We arrived just after 8am and in good time for the reserve opening. After having breakfast of coffee with cheese and ham rolls (which Keith had kindly prepared for us) we wandered down the road to have a look around Rye Gatehouse which was built in 1443 as the gatehouse for the Ogard Estate and was one of the first brick built buildings in the country. As you would expect it is now Grade1 listed.

Back to the reserve and in the reception area everyone was excited by the reports that a pair of Black-Necked Grebes had just been spotted on one of the lakes. So off we set in the rain (it did ease up and eventually stop around lunch time) and the common theme, as you would expect at this time of year, was young birds with frantic feeding activity from the parents.

Some Pictures

Canada Goose family (only the one gosling)

Cormorant

A pair of Gadwall

Whitethroat

Sedge Warbler

Tufted Duck (female)

And the highlight of my day was seeing at close range a stationary, for all of 30 seconds, Kingfisher. Until now my only experience of this beautiful bird was seeing a rocket like blue flash as they flew by!  Unfortunately, due to the dull weather, I had been experimenting with high ISO settings on the camera and it was still set to ISO 1600 hence, grainy pictures!  Hopefully I’ll be better prepared next time.

Ponies grazing in one of the marsh meadows

And finally back at the visitor centre this pair of Pheasants were busily scavaging for seed from under the feeding station feeders.

So, after five plus hours of great birding with over forty species listed (and yes we did see the Black-Necked Grebes, albeit distant even with the bino’s) it was time to leave this excellent reserve with a pledge to "be back soon”