- Got up before dawn again this morning (4am) and went to sit by the otter pool on the local river with my wildlife pal (Mr.T).
- Lovely to see the (male) kingfisher again and what we thought (again) was an otter or a mink in the distance, but neither of us was sure.
- The beautifully clear morning meant that although I was able to take photographs of the stars before setting off (including the Orion nebula and Andromeda Galaxy), the stillness, hanging mist and dew (before the sun burnt it off) steamed up our cameras pretty quickly.
- I was lucky to get the one shot of the kingfisher below. Please bear in mind that this was a shot taken with radio control (I was 30 yards away from the camera when I pressed fire, and the camera itself was probably another 30 yards away from the perch). Kingfishers are schedule 1 birds, which means one shouldn't be taking photographs of them near a nest site without a licence (in a nutshell). I know this male kingfisher (with his mate) raised a successful brood this year, which were last seen together about a month ago. So I know therefore I am not disturbing any nest site, nor would I be even without my radio controlled shutter release - but its always best to be 100% sure.
- The roe buck is back in the flood meadow also - nice to see. This flood meadow is due to be turned into a wetland nature reserve this month - this will involve a lot of work (and disturbance), but I'm sure the wildlife will return in droves, soon enough.
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- A dawn walk around a local nature reserve turned into a veritable safari - with breeding ringed plover strutting up and down a lakeside shingle bank, redshank preening on the same lake, a roe buck running past us (same reserve) and a lovely grass snake. Maybe summer is on its way?
