A purple heron has been present at Leighton Moss for a couple of weeks or so and as I had never seen one I was keen to add some images to my portfolio. Mike and I arrived at the Grizedale Hide where the heron had been showing well. We did see it but all too briefly and we therefore decided to visit the Morecambe and Allen hides and return later. It was not good at the marsh hides with a distinct lack of water at the Morecambe hide and only redshanks at the Allen Hide.Four very nice looking snipe were close to the Morecambe Hide and made for some nice images which I will post at a later date.
Mike and I returned to the Grizedale Hide where after a two hour wait the purple heron duly returned. I made the most of this opportunity and took many images of this very scarce visitor to Lancashire. Some of my better efforts are shown below. The local moorland in Bowland has also been turning purple recently and a couple of trips looking for grouse posing in the heather proved difficult. It was of course the beginning of the grouse shooting season and the birds were keeping their heads down and were difficult to find. I did eventually come across a couple of birds after many miles of moorland roads and made the best of the opportunity for some images.
The garden buddleia had also turned a nice purple colour and was attracting many red admirals.It was nice to see a number of butterflies again as they seem to have been absent this summer. I have also shown some images of the Bowland moorland which was looking lovely in it’s purple covering. I intend to visit some more heather moorland over the next few weeks still looking for the perfect red grouse image posing amongst the purple heather. Thanks for looking in and enjoy the weekend.
Brian Rafferty
I am based in Preston. Lancashire. This central location enables me to travel easily to a wide variety of habitats in the North of England. I tend these days not to travel very far as I find that there is plenty to see not very far from home. On my own doorstep are a wonderful variety of habitats - natural woodlands, open fells and hill country, unspoilt river valleys and I have easy access to the delights of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. As you will see from my bird images much time is spent at the wonderful coastal sites forming part of Morecambe Bay and the Ribble Estuary e.g. Marshside and Leighton Moss. In recent years Digital Photography has taken over from Video and as time has moved on I have acquired more and more equipment - as you do!!
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