There and Back

This was a place we were looking forward to seeing. It was in fact really close by to where we were staying. According to the RSPB site:  Blessed with a variety of freshwater habitats, Frampton Marsh provides close views of the abundant birdlife of The Wash - the biggest bay in England. Avocets, Redshanks and Skylarks can all be seen in summer, with thousands of ducks gathering on the freshwater scrapes in winter. This is a landscape surrounded by waters teeming with life. The reserve is set against the shore of The Wash, the UK’s most important estuary for birds. Explore freshwater wetlands, reedbeds, wet grasslands and large shallow pools known as scrapes. Here a few images to remember the day. A gathering of Black Tailed Godwits Black -tailed Godwits in flight Sedge Warbler Reed Bunting Sand Martins Spoonbills Young Shelduck We followed some of the trails and photographed some of the birds, but of course you need to visit a few times at different time of the year to appreciate t...

We had wanted to return to Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire since our previous short visit. So a few days in the area seemed a good idea and Bridlington it was!  We had not had a look at the fishing port of Bridlington, so we were `killing two birds with one stone`, as was often said. We were booked into the Lobster Pot Inn only about 20 min drive from Bempton Cliffs, and this was our first port of call. The Bempton Cliffs reserve, on the spectacular Yorkshire coast, is home to one of the UK's top wildlife spectacles. Around half a million seabirds gather here between March and October to raise a family on towering chalk cliffs which overlook the North Sea.  Read more at RSPB The experience is truly awe inspiring at this time of year and we could recommend this as a must if you are in the area. So to a few images of the birds swooping and diving in front of us!  An adult Gannett Kittiwake Juvenile Gannet of between 2 and 3 years old,...

Minsmere is a great place to spend some hours, which we have done on numerous occasions. Today being one of those days, albeit with large numbers of other people! The Wikipedia entry gives a brief description of the place:- RSPB Minsmere is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere, Suffolk. The 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) site has been managed by the RSPB since 1947 and covers areas of reed bed, lowland heath, acid grassland, wet grassland, woodland and shingle vegetation. It lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the Suffolk Heritage Coast area. It is conserved as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar site. The nature reserve is managed primarily for bird conservation, particularly through control and improvement of wetland, heath and grassland habitats, with particular emphasis on enco...