On the 17th october Sarah and i were married at Swiss Gardens, Bedfordshire. The following day the family went to devon for the week. Partly because i wanted to connect with my first Cirl bunting, naughty i know....My dad and i travelled to prawl point and were lucky enough to see a solitary male singing up on the hillside, although brief and no chance of a photo we were still happy to tick this one off whilst there. As for other birding, well that consisted of what we saw when out and about. There were good numbers of raven and buzzard and others noted were grey wag,rock pipit,goldcrests,a single redwing and the first flock of fieldfare for the winter,plenty of bullfinch golden plover.
As a wedding present sarah arranged a trip out with Johnny Kingdom for myself and my dad. A fantastic and funny day out it was too. Johnny is a down to earth, great bloke, a terrific afternoon out after lunch crossing over exmoor with lots of stags seen and still rutting, what an experience.
The scenery around devon was spectacular and very bloody steep too, my car has never done so much driving in 2nd gear. There are streams and waterfalls all over the place, and the coast was just up the road. Below is just a selection of the places we visited, such as Valley of the rocks, watersmeet, heddons mouth.
Myself and sarah spent some time trying to connect with the Rough legged buzzard at Reed in Hertfordshire. The weather was bloody awful on occasions but good views were had in the end. On the afternoon of the 18th i went back in the hope of connecting again and was able to gain a few more record shots. There were numerous buzzards in the area but as soon as the rough legged showed you just knew that was the bird. The tail stood out immediately and then you took in the rest of the plumage, along with the hen harrier and red kite it was a very productive site, with thanks to the landowners for their time and patience and in stopping to take time to talk,thankyou.
