Lyveden New Bielde walk

From the car park at Fermyn Woods Country Park we followed the walk to Wadenhoe, then extended it by walking along the river to Aldwincle before heading back to pick up the trail through more woodland and finally, after 11 miles, back to the car.

Sunday was another excellent day for raptors, including the local Red Kite population, and I finally managed to get some snaps including these top and bottom record shots of what I believe is a juvenile Peregrine Falcon, first from underneath:




















Then a view of the birds' back as it banked and turned:



















There were two birds together but they moved off very quickly. The walk was quieter overall but we did some interesting sights, including this Yellowhammer female, collecting food and then returning to a hedgerow nest:
















Heading back in Southern Wood (part of a larger wood) we heard a repeated high-pitched calling and could make out this bird in the distance. After some persistence we got a clear view of this Hobby:
















The bird was calling very loudly, then flying out catching and eating a dragonfly on the wing then returning to perch and call, putting on a great show!

Finally as we head back to Fermyn Wood we spotted this Chinese Muntjac deer. It's a sad thing to see as back in the woods they have deer hides, so they clearly shoot the deer to 'control' their population, not that food resources and natural balance can't cope. It's also remarkable that so rare an animal has to be 'controlled'... any excuse for those scumbags.