2cy male Kestrel

Grasshopper Warblers are in

bu pretty poor images -- this constant easterly wind has not helped 

Blackcap

clearly another arrival of Blackcaps over the weekend with singing males setting up territories amongst the birds that came in earlier in April

our local Scaup

this drake Scaup arrived on the local pits in early 2016 but sustained a wing injury either from shooting or overhead wires and since then he is unable to fly -this is about as far as he gets in attempts to get aerborne -- every winter and early spring other Scaup join him and odd females hang around with him until March or early April when they leave him alone for the summer --

Collared Dove limelight

In my collection of images I would guess that I have in the region of 5000 shots of Marsh Harriers and 10,000 of Black-tailed Godwits but less than 40 shots of Collared Doves! they are of course a garden and rooftop regular but not always easy to get nice slight shots of -- still a work in progress

garden raptor

this nice male Sparrowhawk may well have been the reason there was a pile of Blackbird feather in the lawn this morning --

Yellow Wagtail portrait

our closest thing to an American wood warbler in brightness and always great to see the first spring birds back -- slightly unusual to get a shot in a nice Willow

dark-edged bee-fly

a couple in the garden today -- trying to photograph them in flight with the 400mm lens but just too tricky so resorted to the Canon 70-200 f4 II which has a close focus of 1m and with the Canon 5D4 it was still not easy but pleased with a couple of flight shots

a 2cy male Hen Harrier

more garden action

the Common Backswimmer out and about and swimming, pond frogs and one of my biggest seed eaters

adult Peregrine

a beautiful bird dashing past

pond life

been staring into the new pond, constructed last summer, and there is a lot of life in there -- this morning saw this perched on the flag iris -- Common backswimmer seen later patrolling the water where there are a lot of small tadpoles -- plenty to go round

a slightly different couple of takes on my garden Blackbird

 they are building a nest in the bay tree on the patio and carry on duties when I am only 1m away - have been brushed by the female's wing a few times as she passes to and from the nest

and another garden regular

up to 7 in the garden this winter but only 4-5 of late --

some garden friends

eating so much seed at the moment; I have counted 18 at one time but there must be more than that or they would all be very heavy