We didn’t fancy anything strenuous last weekend and as it was Wendy’s birthday we arranged to stay at The Quay, Deganwy, a truly stunning hotel with a view out of our room that disproved the saying “money can’t buy a view like that”. Looking left we could see Conwy Castle and right, the River Conwy as it met the sea. A truly magnificent location with fantastic food and great service. Yes, it was expensive and not normally something we’d do [... read rest of post]
With the weather being so fantastic this weekend and the skies being clear and bright I decided to have a quick visit to RSPB Marshside to see if I could get a shot of the Pink footed geese as they came in to roost. As I pulled into the car park, a drive of a whole 15 minutes, the Sun vanished behind the cloud leaving me and a few other photographers that had the same idea in the dark, literally. [... read rest of post]
As the wind continued to be a bit blustery we decided to go and visit South Stack lighthouse with the cameras and spotting scope to see what bird life we could find. This time we climbed down the cliff path (all 400 steps of it) and went across to the lighthouse where the Lesser Black Backed Gulls still had chicks. The views back towards the cliffs of the sea birds coming and going were astonishing and we saw all sorts [... read rest of post]
As the weather has been so good this week we went for a quick walk to RSPB Marshside, Southport, to see if we could spot the Avocets and chicks that have started breeding on the marshes in recent years. As per normal we took almost every piece of optical equipment we owned assuming the birds would be miles and miles away. Shock of shocks! There birds were on the rapidly drying up pond as close to the road as they [... read rest of post]
The weather forecast yesterday was horrific with almost 40mph winds and heavy rain so we cancelled our sea fishing trip and hence didn’t get any bait. Imagine my frustration on waking this morning to a light breeze and glorious sunshine – oh well, British weather, what can you do? Not wanting to waste the fine weather I went walking around the Marshside RSPB reserve, near Southport, Merseyside. The drive took about 15 minutes and as I approached the car park [... read rest of post]
As BBC’s Autumn Watch came to an end last week, and what a fantastic series it was, I trawled through the internet to find a few relevant websites. WWT, The Wildlife and Wetlands Trust The UK’s only specialist wetland conservation charity and home of Martin Mere, the location of Autumn Watch. The RSPB, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Working to secure a healthy environment for birds and wildlife which helps create a better world for us all. [... read rest of post]
With the forecast for a very warm day for this time of the year we decided to go and have a look round the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss, Lancashire, just north of Carnforth. As promised it was a fantastic day and we spent the morning wandering in and out of the hides watching the many species of wetland birds that visit the reserve in the Autumn and Winter. The reserve is famous for having the most northerly breeding Bitterns [... read rest of post]
This week we’ve not been sea fishing or walking at all as we’ve been replenishing our supplies of gear that has either been used up or lost over the past few months. We did manage to get out to Southport yesterday where we bought a new pair of binoculars from Waddington Photographic small enough to stuff into a rucksack so that we can take them wherever we go. As the weather has been so grim over the past week I’ve [... read rest of post]