Saturday, September 12th 2026 - Brede, Rye TN31 6HH, UK

https://app.bto.org/birdtrack/pubcon/shared?subId=SUB52309092

Went out for a few hours this morning in the Brede Valley managing 38 bird species. Highlight were three Hobbies, suprisingly my first Yellowhammers for the year, and Clouded Yellow.

Hobby

Clouded Yellow

and few more snaps...

Meadow Pipit

Doorstep Meadows

 I’m very lucky to have some beautiful meadows and woodland very close to where I live, although you’d never know just by driving by. This my daily patch where I walk the dogs most days. They are looking splendid at the moment with lots of Wild Carrot and Common Knapweed.

Iron Bridge, Waller’s Haven

A return to Blogger, bored of social media and constant doom scrolling through adverts, no more cares about likes nor trying to build a following. This is just a diary for me, to look back on occasionally to remember, and to share some photos. No goals, no pressures, just something to enjoy doing. 

 Iron Bridge, Waller's Haven, Horsewalk, Hailsham BN27 1RY, UK on 10/07/2026, 18:07 - 20:57.

 View my #BirdTrack list: 

https://app.bto.org/birdtrack/pubcon/shared?subId=SUB52092808 

Highlights: Common Sandpiper which was a first for the year, a family of hunting Kestrels, beautiful Red Fox on the other side of the river, Kingfisher (always a highlight to see these colouful birds) a Clouded Yellow butterfly and White-legged Damselfly.

I saw a few Red-eyed Damselflies in sheltered areas of the river, the one below was sheltering from the breeze on a bramble and I didn’t recognise the species some took a few shots. It’s my first White-legged Damselfly so pretty happy I managed to spot it.

There were a few butterflies feeding on the Bramble flowers. Meadow Brown, Gatekeepers and a single Small Tortoiseshell.

Meadow Brown

Gatekeeper

Small Tortoiseshell

As the sun was setting I took the advantage to shoot some backlit shots walking back to the car.

Early Sunrise

Lovely light this morning for the first time in a long while. Would have been nice if the owls showed up, although luckily I packed the wide angle for some landscape opportunities.

Great Crested Grebes

Time for more Great Crested Grebe shots, they are such lovely birds. I put on the waders to get as far out to them as I could, the trusty Gitzo doing a sterling job of holding the camera and lens inches above the water. All taken with the 7D, Canon 500mm F4 and 1.4 TC.

*EDIT* Colours are looking off in the below photos - i will look into why this is happening, I think it has something to do with Blogger...

*EDIT* Fixed after re-profiling the monitor and re processing the images.

Spring Woodland

I decided to have an early morning at the woods now spring is very much on the doorstep. The birds were certainly active with Chiffchaffs in full voice along with Song Thrushes, Wren, Robins, and my favourite, Blackbirds, all marking out their territories. Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming all over the place, a Bullfinch sung softly and Coal, Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits were all seen and head. Spring plants in full bloom were Primrose, Wood Anemone and Lesser Celandine and they attracted Bee Flies, Brimstones, and various other insects as the sun warmed woodland floor and I saw a couple of 7-spot Ladybirds sunning themselves in amongst the Bramble leaves. Deeper into the woods Bluebell leaves, with the occasional flower,  carpeted the floor and in amongst them I found the spotted leaves of Early Purple Orchids. It wont be long until they are in full bloom and and the woods really will spring back to life.

Equipment wise I used a 24-105mm and the 180mm macro, tripod and an angle finder for the following photos.

Log stack (24-105mm)

Birch Leaf (180mm macro)

Primrose (24-105mm)

Primrose (24-105mm)

Primrose (180mm macro)

Primrose (180mm macro)

Bluebell (180mm macro)

Pett Levels

I have just got round to processing a few photos that I took at Pett Levels a couple of weeks ago, just to get out with the camera for an hour. I'm looking forward to spring which is just round the corner and am eager to put the macro lens to some use this year, and hopefully widen the portfolio a bit. I've got a few ideas to make the blog a bit more interesting and hopfully add some posts between trips possibly including stuff about equiptment and how I take the photos and to share my frustrations so I can hopefully help a few people starting out.

These three photos were taken from the car with the 7D & 500mm F4 (1.4x tc for the Coot and Rook), resting on bean bag.