Seymour Birdies Diary: ....and now on to Fowlmere

8th April 2014

After a very successful morning at Church Hill despite the near gale-force wind, the next stop was Fowlmere which can be quiet at times, but it is a lovely walk with plenty of photo opportunities. Even more so today as I had both my new macro and my 400mm lenses.

The walk through the wood was fairly uneventful so I took some time out to photograph some bright blue Field Forget-me-not and Pussy Willow. What I love about flowers is that they are well-behaved, don't fly away and will even be there the next day And even better if they are in a sheltered position.

Further on down the path we left the wood and moved on to the boardwalk through the reedbed. Here the colourful flowers of the woodland were replaced by the flowers of Great Pond Sedge which although fairly dull is of a much more intricate structure.

Also along that stretch were a number of hoverflies and bee flies. I did try and get some shots of the hoverflies but they were fairly fast and one minute against a sky background and the next minute settled on a tree so getting the exposure right was tricky. However the bee-flies were far more cooperative and eventually I was able to get a reasonable shot.

We had now turned up the track to the Reed Bed Hide and what we saw next was rather astonishing. For there growing in a trunk of standing dead wood was..........Ground Ivy. Time for change of name methinks!

A rather confiding Chiffchaff was singing its heart out and eventually came to the edge of the tree for some photos

Further up the track a male Linnet was also strutting his stuff and was quite tolerant of a couple of birders with cameras clicking away just 10 yards away.

And so on to our final destination, the Reed Bed Hide. I have never seen anything untoward from this hide, but the wildfowl are usually fairly active and do tend to fly backwards and forwards in front of the hide giving some superb opportunities for some flight shots like this pair of Mallard.