Inca Tern

We're members of WWT and have visited a few of their reserves across the UK. But our local one is Martin Mere near Preston. It's still about an hour's drive away, so was a day out for us.

The star bird of the day isn't any of those here. It was the March Harrier, or rather 3 of them. We watched one fly around with prey in it's talons while two others tried to snatch it away. A thrilling flying display, but too far away for my limited lens. It's always a bit of a hit and miss affair if you see one harrier so we were particularly lucky to see three.

During the summer you can walk amongst the reed beds which are usually out of bounds for humans at other times of the year. And that's one of the reasons we visit at least once this time of year.

We were intrigued by the Inca terns too. I'd never heard of them let along seen one. And the last bird encounter of the day were the flamingos. Who were preening and washing themselves in the water, creating some great splashing scenes for photography. 

I even managed to get a shot of a dragonfly for National Insect Week!