Happy Birthday To you....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE

Thursday morning and it was my other half's birthday, so I got up at 5 o'clock and headed over to Leighton Moss, don't worry she was in college so I was allowed out for a bit...

Anyway... To the serious stuff, I got down into Lilian's hide for 6 o'clock and everything kicked off, as I arrived I started checking through the large number off gulls that were around when a summer plumage Mediterranean Gull dropped in at the back of the pool, weighted around for about 5 minuets and then moved on, within 5 min as I was scanning across the top of the reed bed for anything unusual a Bitten decided to drop in out of site but a millisecond glimpse is better that none at all.

After this not much happened so I decided to head over to the grit trays to see if any of the Bearded Tits where around, I did manage to get a quick view of a gorgeous male at the top of a reed before flying off and never been seen again, although two slightly more co-operative Sedge Warblers provided ample opportunity for a few photographs:-

Sedge Warbler

After this very pleasant encounter, as I managed to get within about 2 metres of the special little birds, I decide to head over to the main reserve to see what was around. I decided to put in a good stint in Grisdale Hide and see what turns up, I weighted for almost an hour before anything turned up, with a large herd of 13 Red Deer came walking across in front of the hide:-

Red Deer

As I was watching this, a Male Marsh Harrier decided to give us a very close up view of its self as it tried to snatch a chick from a Moorhen nest but the Mum and Dad where having nothing to do with it...

Marsh Harrier

As the Marsh Harrier drifted off so majestically into the distance, I decided that it was time to see if anything interesting was showing its self over at Eric Morecambe's hide, as I settled down, I was shown a Spoonbill roosting far off to the left, not showing its bill at all and been very in-conspicuous so I decided to have3 a check through the massive number of gulls that were present. It just so happened that I was very lucky this time and literally the first 2 gulls that I checked were 2 of the 3 little gulls that were present in the end, I saw so happy to see this fabulous little bird, I didn't take that many pictures, but I was so happy to see them for the first time, I don't even care, but here are a few record pics anyway:-

Anyway I hope that you like me blog, sorry about the late delivery but here it is,

Thanks always Lee Harrison.