The Hobby Family at Wilstone Reservoir

9th September 2026

Now that the two-month long heatwave has at long last passed, time for a visit to see how the Hobbys are getting on at Wilstone. Three youngsters fledged and are now probably able to fend for themselves, but the two adults are still in attendance, so it was just a matter of settling down and waiting for the action to commence.

Luckily there was a great support act with five Chinese Water Deer browsing close by.

The juveniles had a favourite perch nearby and spend a lot of time there between feeding sorties.

They were quite happy to share it and seemed to be very comfortable in each others company.

The third bird would also join in, but had obviously never heard of photo composition!!!!

They were also very accomplished flyers as this next sequence shows.

The juveniles have pale fringes to the mantle, wing coverts and primaries and more of a creamy throat and underparts base colour, as opposed to the white of an adult. Also they call for much of the time whilst in flight.

This is an adult with a white throat and underparts base colour, and deeper red trousers

Also good to see two sparring in the air.

At that point a Red Kite drifted across quite innocently, but raised the Hobby alarm and all five birds went up to intercept it.

The kite saw the threat coming and took evasive action....................

.........................whilst all the time keeping its eyes on the incoming attacker....................

....................and then a final evasive manoeuvre as the first attacker arrived, followed by a hasty retreat.

As I said before, the juveniles are probably able to feed themselves now, but it doesn't stop them from trying to steal a dragonfly from one of the adults.

Well, what an amazing action-packed couple of hours, and also good to have a catch-up with Phil Luckhurst and Miguel, and the rest of the Wilstone crew.

An Osprey at Abberton Reservoir

5th September 2026

After a most enjoyable morning on West Mersea, time for an afternoon visit to Abberton to see what was on offer and hopefully catch up with one of the Ospreys before they leave for Africa. It was fairly clear that the Layer de la Haye causeway was totally dead as for the first time in the 50+ years I have been coming here there wasn't a single car parked along the road. I therefore spent most of my time at the Layer Breton causeway.

Just one Common Tern today and it won't be long now before it starts its long journey south.

And the new kids on the block since my last visit were two pairs of Red-crested Pochards, but at this time of year the males are in eclipse and therefore lack the orange head.

This is one of the females.

Only three species of wader today starting with the resident Lapwing.

The next was a single Black-tailed Godwit which, although quite common at Abberton, are not very often seen on the banks of the causeway.

And finally that most welcome autumn passage migrant the Ruff.

Great White Egrets are now well established at Abberton...............

.....................and are obviously high up in the pecking order as they command their own Spoonbill Guard of Honour!!!!

Also majestic flyers.

Just think how far we used to travel to see a Spoonbill, but now they have been breeding at Abberton for a few years and today there were no less than 40 birds on site.

This is a juvenile with its black tips to the wings.................

...................and here an adult.

A bit of cooperative feeding here and I assume the swan is feeding on what the Spoonbills are stirring up from the bottom.

Now on to Hide Bay Hide to see if the Osprey is in attendance.

However, I was immediately distracted by a Hobby hunting in front of the hide. When a Hobby catches a dragonfly the first thing it does is to cut off its wings, and you can see here one of the wings (circled in red) falling to the ground.

Well, that was good timing but now on to the star of the show, the Osprey. I chose today as it was a bit cooler and delayed my visit to Hide Bay until late in the afternoon to avoid the heat haze, which appears to have paid off. Rather conveniently the Osprey had flown in with a large fish just before I arrived.

After it had demolished the fish it was being harassed by one of the local Magpies......................

........................and responded by lifting its wings to make itself look bigger.

Well, what another fantastic day at Abberton and nice to get some shots of one of the Ospreys without too much heat haze. 

Also good to meet and have a long chat with Jeanette and Alison. Good luck with the new cameras.