Martin Watkins

@mjw2.bsky.social

363 Followers 494 Following

Retired social care professional.Dad to three, grandad to four boys.Married.I have physical disability, refuse to let this stop me from gardening and bird watching .Autistic.Support Spurs & Lancashire cc.Socialist.Really like Pratchett,movies and nature.

Little egret hunting close up.I sat in a hide for about two hours taking hundreds of pictures.About seven were any good.White feathers,with just a hint of yellows and oranges contrasts with the dark spear of a bill and the grey blue background of the water.
Aircraft coming into land,geese waiting for their turn at sunset to do the same.I took this from the edge of Burton Mere RSPB where I had been watching marsh harriers, waders and woodpeckers. I like this photo as it shows the beauty and colour of the evening sky,our magnificent sunset and the fragility of nature.It is slightly menacing as the pylons,cables and aircraft in the back and middle ground seem to pose a potential threat to nature
Kestrel hovering while hunting,about to swoop down.Wings raised,head pointed towards target.Kestrel in centre of photo. Smoky white cloud in top half of frame,clear blue sky is main background.Kestrel is dark ,with winter sunshine showing little flecks of colour and markings.Taken on my phone when walking near the marsh between Cheshire,England and North Wales...the Dee estuary.
Robin perched in leafless tree.Cloudess blue sky as backdrop.
We visited a bird reserve in Iceland.Remote and beautiful So many Kittiwake,Fulmar and Arctic Terns.
Single dolphin,part of a large pod we saw while heading towards Scottish waters.It has jumped out of the sea and is heading back in while chasing fish.
Male Eider duck swimming in a fjord.
About 50 Seals resting on a beach in the sunshine,a few metres from the sea .
3 Avocets on a mere.Black and white birds with an upward curved beak .Side on view,swimming to the left.
Egyptian goose eating grass by the side of a pond.Coot in the background.
Whimbrel,which is a large brown wading bird,a bit smaller than Curlew, with long downward curving beak to help it hunt on shoreline.It is perched on rocks at bottom of photo with ocean at top of photo .I had to be very careful not to scare it as it would not normally allow anyone to get this close...about a metre.
Two Ruddy Shelduck on a hotel roof waiting for two others to fly past.
Gulls feeding
Egyptian goose on fallen tree at Burton Mere RSPB
Great white Egret hunting for fish or frogs.