Scotland - Moray Firth Dolphins

Back in June during our trip to Scotland, a visit to Chanonry Point on the Moray Firth on a cold, mainly grey day hoping to see the most northerly pod of Bottle Nosed Dolphins around the UK.

Waiting on the beach looking across to Fort George, a dolphin surfaces.

Difficult mammals to photograph, as by the time you have spotted one breaking the surface, the dolphin is already on its way down into the water.  Plenty of photographs of fins and tails, so I was really pleased to get these two leaping out of the water.  They only performed complete leaps on two or three occasions so I count myself very lucky to catch this leap.

More luck with a close pass by the shore, I had spotted the first dolphin surface, and would have only had the fin and tail, but for the second dolphin surfacing slightly later, allowing me to catch it's head.

The shingle beach looking south west towards Inverness and the Great Glen.

A dolphin fin showing a scar?

A wonderful experience well worth the wait in the cold.

Startops Reservoir Tring - July Birds Pt 2

More photographs from my visit to Startops Reservoir earlier this month

A Mute Swan pretending to sleep with one eye open...

...perhaps to keep a lookout for this nesting male House Sparrow with a swan's feather in his beak.

A female chaffinch framed by a male mallard

A Reed Warbler in the reed bed of the adjoining Marsworth Reservoir

Scotland - Balnakeil Bay

Photographs taken at Balnakeil Bay near Durness.  I understand that John Lennon's aunt is buried at the  graveyard by this beautiful sandy bay. 

A fortified house overlooking the beach and graveyard.  No window is at ground floor level.  I am not too sure about the rooflights.

A ringed Plover on the sandy beach

Looking across the bay to the Cape Wrath peninsular

A cow and wall

Woburn - Red and Fallow Deer

An evening's drive through Woburn Park this week.  If only these animals were truly wild, I would have been really pleased with these  photographs.

The Red Deer's antlers are in velvet.  An impressive number of antler points on the stag at the back.

Whilst most of the stags were in a loose herd, this stag was on his own. He had lost the velvet on the antlers, presumably by rubbing them through the grass or against trees.  I didn't see any others in the same condition. If it had been the Autumn, I would have thought it was the beginning of the rut.  Perhaps it is the poor summer temperatures that have confused him?

A young Red Deer, I think showing signs of his first year's antlers.

Fallow Deer in the parkland, with their beautiful spotted summer coats.  I suspect that the fallow deer at Woburn have been selectively culled over the years to avoid the darker melanistic coats that predominate at Ashridge and seen in the countryside.

An unusual Fallow Deer birth! I can assure you no photoshop used for the head.

Scotland - Sea, Sun, Sand and Birds plus a Mountain

A beautiful day with Sun and Showers in the far North of Scotland.

Whiten Head on the North Coast from near Faraid Head near Durness looking East

Grass, Shadows and Sand Dunes

Some of the small flock of Whimbrel feeding on Faraid Head

A darkening sky with Foinaven in the distance



Startops Reservoir Tring - July Birds Pt1

I visited Tring Reservoirs with the hope of seeing the rare and unseasonal Sabine's Gull which stayed over for at least five days at Startops Reservoir at the beginning of July.  Frustratingly, the closest I came to seeing it was on my first attempt on the Thursday evening, having been told it had been there two hours previously.  Two later visits on the Friday evening, and then the Saturday morning also drew two more blanks.  However my visits to the reservoirs did result in a few pleasing photos.

The first bird I saw on leaving the car, a Long Tailed Tit

A Common Tern, not flying directly away from me for once

and another photo of the tern



Scotland - Kyle of Durness, Birds and Lambs

The Kyle of Durness in the far NW of Scotland on the Monday Bank Holiday at the beginning of June.

Looking South with one of the shoulders of Foinaven in the distance

Red Breasted Mergansers making a hasty get away when I got too close

Eider drakes preening.  Their call reminds me of Frankie Howerd's "ah-ooo".  You have to hear it to believe it.

Dunlin in breeding plumage on the rocky high tide mark waiting for the tide to go out

Shy and curious Lambs

Incombe Hole surprisingly sunny

The first day of July and a quick walk to the top of Incombe hole and along Steps Hill and back through the blackthorn scrub to the car. The wet weather this year has promoted fantastic green plant growth on these chalk hills. Amongst the grass are many wild flowers, but few signs of flying insects and butterflies.

Overlooking Incombe Hole

A bit closer to the hole with shining grass heads shining in the sun and breeze

The orchids this year have been fantastic,  Not so the weather when I have been visiting earlier in June, but was able to get a shot of this late flowering Common Twayblade...

...and this extremely light coloured Common Spotted Orchid (at least that is what I think it is - I stand to be corrected).



Scotland - A Mountain, Two Birds and a Beetle

Back to early June.  A grey day with a walk up the lower slopes of the classic Munro, An Teallach.

Two small silhouettes of walkers by the trig point or cairn on the ridge of the mountain.  I will need to be fitter before I attempt the top.

A female Chaffinch in the woods below ready to feed her young...

...then a beetle with a beautiful blue tinge on the path....

... and finally this Great Tit that posed for me.  











Blackbird Sunbathing in July

Not a great photo as the blackbird was about 30m away and nearly hidden by a tree in the foreground, but interesting behaviour with the bird spreading out its wing and tail feathers in the sun yesterday.

It could have possibly been anting (I think that is the term where a bird sits on an ant's nest where it is believed that the ant's formic acid sprayed on the feathers help protect against parasites), but here I get the impression it was just enjoying the heat from the rare sun this summer.

I watched it for a minute before it got up, walked a short distance before it flew off, showing some slightly lighter feathers.