Walks with my camera
Magnificent Birds
The sea was calm on our boat trip to the Isle of May and we passed by the Bass Rock, famous for its gannet colony. We were able to get really close up to these magnificent birds. Some were sitting on eggs, some like this pair were rubbing beaks together as part of a courtship…
Puffin Paradise
Yesterday a friend and I went on a boat trip from Dunbar to the Isle of May. We had timed it for peak puffin season and we weren’t disappointed! There were tens of thousands of puffins on land and sea around the island. Many were busy bringing in sand eels to their hidden “puffling” chicks…
Chick Checking
While I was “over the pond” in the US I was aware that I’d be missing the chicks on our own nearby ponds and lochs. So I’ve been out looking to check for chicks, especially looking for cygnets and baby crested grebes. As I suspected, the ones I found were already many weeks old. The…
Striking Woodpeckers
Feeling jet lagged after our travels we took a wander up the back lane to try and keep awake. We heard the insistent pleading “chook chook chook” of a baby woodpecker and tried to work out where it was coming from. We identified the tree, right next to the lane and saw a woodpecker flying…
The Wild West – Birds
It’s great to see and hear totally new birds when abroad. In America they have a robin too, but it apart from its amber chest it doesn’t look anything like our robin. It has a black back and is the size of a thrush. However it is vocal and happy to pose for photographs just…
The Wild West -Mammals
Last month we visited first Colorado and then Oregon in Western USA. I went armed with my less cumbersome middle lens. The first wildlife that I photographed were these comical prairie dogs. They dug out big holes in the prairie earth and could be seen popping in and out of them. They were about the…
Mid May Sightings
No otter sightings at all for me this year on our visit to the Isle of Jura. The weather was wilder and the sea much choppier, so maybe that made them harder to spot. Or maybe we just weren’t lucky this year. But the seals were basking in their usual favourite place. You can see…
Busy Back Lane Birds
A few seconds walk from my back door and I am on the most wonderful back lane a bird watcher could wish for. It goes steeply up through woodland but then levels out on open countryside bordered by hawthorn and gorse hedges. The other morning it was alive with birdsong from both native and migrant…
Branching Out!
A week ago I could see that it wouldn’t be long before the two owlets left their cosy tree nest. The eldest of the two was stretching its wings and looking like it might attempt to leave. It’s a long way down to the ground, and it would have to drop down, owlets don’t fly…
A Sight to Delight
Yesterday I had a second visit to the River Kelvin in Glasgow’s West End to try and see the goosander chicks which I’d heard were there. At first the river seemed completely devoid of wildlife. I walked downstream and then retraced my steps. Then out of the lush green foliage on the opposite bank popped…
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Sarah's Wildlife Watch 