Still struggling with my hay fever, but slowly getting back to normal.

Had quite a few short walkabouts this past week, seen siskins, goldcrests, nuthatches, treecreepers, goldfinches, buzzard, kestrel, mistle thrush, wren, redpoll amongst all the other usual suspects.

Here are a few photos, hoping to post something a little more interesting very soon.

Still watching the nuthatch

Not been out as much as I would like, one because the weather has been crap and secondly I have a form of hay fever whereby I struggle when trees are coming into bud and also when they shed their leaves, hopefully be back to normal in a couple of weeks, so for now it's just going to be short trips where there are trees.
I have also been putting some seed down in a new spot by the stream in the hope I may eventually get a shot of a water vole.

So I shall start with a selection of Nuthatch photos from the last couple of days, I did see the male and female together this morning, but no photo, fingers crossed as I shall keep trying.

Couple of goes up on Edna's stump, but the light hasn't been too good, but live in the hope of something unusual might pop along.

Got these pics of a grebe that came in real close.

Will hopefully post again in a couple of days.

Nuthatch making a nest

Off out for a good walkabout this morning, sun was up early and so was I, saw the grebes out in the distance on the pool, but nothing else apart from the usual ducks.

Had a walk into the reserve but was very squelchy underfoot so I didn't venture too far.

Down by the pools it was still frozen and this pic was used on the national news at lunchtime.

A wren sat nicely for me albeit a little too far away.

Had a walk along Spennells Valley Road and around the stream footpaths hoping to see the kingfisher, I did spot him though but only had the bridge camera at the time and by the time I had focused he had gone, never mind there's always tomorrow.

The sun still shining and an hour or so to spare before the school run so popped out again with the big lens, luckily I spotted this nuthatch digging out it's nest (I think), will be keeping my eyes on this.
Some photos below, light was a bit harsh though.

A quick visit later on and the nuthatch was nowhere to be seen, but this great tit was there, mind you I wasn't there long as I was about to do the second school run.

Frog Spawn

Monday 19th March

The snow was disappearing quite fast so I decided to pop up to Edna's Stump, haven't done any flight shots for a while, although the light was just right there was a bitterly cold wind so I only managed just under an hour.

To be honest I did have a walk round just to try and keep warm but didn't see much bird life at all.

Tuesday 20th March

Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, had to take the wife shopping and yes you've guessed it, when we got home the sun had vanished without trace.

No problem, still went for a walk down the front nature reserve, very dull, was hoping to see a kingfisher, but that didn't happen, main object though was to see if there were any frogs about, well I found quite a bit of frog spawn but no sign of the frogs, they were hiding from the bitterly cold wind.

Severn valley spring gaa and the snow returns

Saturday 17.03.18

The second day of the Spring Gala so decided to go over the rifle range to get some photos of steam engines, little did I know how changeable the weather was going to be, it was cold so I wrapped up really warm, but it got colder and colder. Went from bright sunshine to a snow blizzard within seconds and vice versa.

Was hoping for a pic of King Edward, I did get one but light was very poor and the wind was blowing the wrong way, oh well there's always another day.

These were my only real acceptable images.

The next ones are images of the rifle range and will show how changeable the weather was.

This is what it was like on my walk back to the car!

Sunday 18.03.2018

A decent fall of snow overnight, so I decided to go for a walkabout, didn't stay out too long though.

Captains was deserted and not many birds about, hardly surprising as it was yuk out there.

Goy home and put some seed out on the patio, quite a few birds were hungry judging by the speed they arrived. Here's the first visitors.

 Fingers crossed Spring weather arrives soon.