Sunday, April 15, 2012

April 15 2012

So we head out West in the hope of a pleasant spring morning, only to have freezing winds with some heavy snow showers, winter is back (for today). At Derwent Reservoir, there were Little Ringed Plover, House Martin and Willow Warbler (all new year birds for me) as well as Swallow, Goosander and Great Crested Grebe but the un-doubted highlight was a male Merlin that flashed through causing panic in the Linnet flock.

We head off from here in the hope that we will leave winter behind, but it was not to be; winter stayed with us all day, however the birding went from just canny to excellent!

First off, we have two of these…

Osprey

…this one gave a nice fly-by showing a full crop from the fish it had been dining on. The other had been flying back and forth with nest material!

Osprey

Then just up the road, we have two of these…

Short-eared Owl

…and these two were getting a bit frisky too!

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