On of the great things about Spring is seeing the next generation of Birds. I had seen my first group of five Mallard ducklings with mum on Brownsea on 1 Apr, however, I didn't manage to get any photos. A week later, this female Mallard wandered along the main National Trust path next to the DWT gazebo. There were eighteen ducklings, albeit I only managed to fit the first fiftee...

I've been watching St Aldhelms regularly this Spring. One of the corners on the patch that I check has proved to be a great new site for Shieldbugs on sunny days. On this visit, I ended up seeing four species, with a big appearance of Sloe Bugs and a single Green Shieldbug: both new for the year at St Aldhelms. There were also some of the Boat Bugs and Brassica Bugs that I've al...

The wind and sea currents hadn't changed and opened up any routes to allow us to head closer to the Snow Hill Island Emperor Penguin colony. So, we were still milling around the Northern Weddell Sea and Antarctic Sound area. On a positive note, Pippa gave us an early six AM wake up call to say that we had good weather and we would shortly be resuming flying. I was in the last gr...

One of the target species I was keen to see on my first visit to Antarctica in Jan 23 was Antarctic Petrel. Frustratingly, we failed to see one, despite several good Birders on the ship. When I was sorting my photos, I found several photos of an Antarctic Petrel flying past the Plancius, while I was photographing a giant iceberg. To have evidence of having one fly past me withou...

This morning I popped out to the nearby Dancing Ledge area to look for the local Puffins. A handful of this lovely species have returned, but the odds of them successfully breeding are low. The National Trust have been monitoring the last few individuals for a couple of years now with cameras and they haven't seen strong evidence of chicks, beyond the odd Puffin sighting of them...