I have decided today to extend my Blog to cover my trips out and about my local area. I have had such an entertaining and fruitful days bird watching and photography I am going to include this as a trip report.
We travelled to nearby Dartmoor National Park armed with my trusty Pentax camera and 500mm zoom lens and a flask of coffee, with the sun shining like it’s supposed to, off we went, full of the “Joys of Spring” as the saying goes! We were headed for Dartmeet, deep on the moor, a wooded valley where the two tributaries of the Dart converge to continue on down to the South Coast and the town of Dartmouth. This is well known beauty and picnic spot with a small shop and cafe. In the summer it can be quite busy but in the middle of the week and in March probably very quiet. And, so it proved with an empty car park and peaceful tranquility prevailing. We parked next to a Hawthorn tree and hung a suet ball in the tree and waited for the action! A surprisingly long time passed by before the first bird realised that the dinner gong had been rung. This was a friendly Robin who sang his song before casually hopping down to feed from the offerings. He was a lovely specimen and glad to pose for his photograph! It wasnt long before he was joined by a flock of Tits ( Chickadees, if you are in the USA).
The first to pluck up the courage and join the feast, was a lovely Blue Tit.
This pattern went on without break for a while until out of nowhere one of my favourites arrived, a Nuthatch. He wasnt’ standing for any nonesense and all the other birds kept their distance.
Coal tits put in a regular appearance, probably as often as the Blue Tits and then finally we were honoured with the presence of one of Britains less familiar Tit species the Marsh Tit who, although very difficult to photograph, did show really well. They are so active and move so quickly, they hardly stay still long enough for a good shot.

After two hours or so of the fun and coffee, I took a little stroll down the river for a couple of hundred yards. It was surprisingly cold for the time of year and a quickly made my way back to the car for yet more coffee.
It had been a good trip and the camera had done well. We also got quick glimpses of a Yellowhammer but he didn’t come into camera range. Blackbirds and Chaffincheswere with us constantly, and a pair of Grey Wagtails flew from the river in the distance. They are not a particularly rare bird, in fact we have had them in the garden on one occasion, but I am very fond of them. I plan to track them down and get some good shots for the Blog very soon.
To get full size images of the pictures just click on them and they will open up in a seperate window as a large image.