A wander with some particularly wild things (24 Oct 2025)

An action-packed post starring three femme fatales.

My trusty camera is back in my hand after a month, and it’s better (and cleaner) than ever. So I didn’t let an overcast sky and chilly wind deter me, and headed to a reliably quiet yet nature-filled spot.

Usually shy, these Little Grebes put on quite the show.

Broom Gravel Pits is still owned by a tarmac company, but the wildlife doesn’t care about trespassing. This spot is a haven for waders and waterfowl despite being further from the sea than almost any other body of water in the UK.

The Little Grebe, above and below, seems to have found a Crayfish in the flooded quarry. They created quite the commotion, chasing each other around in wide arcs.

The yellow gape at the corner of the mouth is the only clear difference between the juvenile and its parents at this age.

After a while, the chasing adult gave up and let the juvenile enjoy his catch. I continued along a winding footpath, crunchy with golden leaves. Today is uncharacteristically quiet.

Until, that is, you approach the main section of water. Here, hundreds of Greylag Geese have gathered, alongside gulls, ducks and around 50 Lapwings.

The only bird ‘song’ is the honk-onk-onk as the geese come in to land, and the occasional warbling wail from a Little Grebe.

But before long, Gadwalls join in with a peeping alarm call. The Black-Headed Gulls add their crying screams and a couple of Lapwings take to the wing with hysterical peeee-eeeee calls… something has spooked them.

Lapwings, Black-Headed Gulls and a single Starling.

The hysteria spreads and soon all the smaller birds take to the air in a flurry of whooshing wings. The sound of a hundred goose feet splashing as they scramble to get airborne adds to the din.

This group of geese is coming back to land after a frantic circuit of the lake.

A large bird of prey appears, flying purposefully over the trees. Not the lazy flap of a Red Kite or the high-up soaring of a Buzzard, but around the same (impressive) size. It’s a wandering Marsh Harrier – a female, with chocolate brown plumage and a yellow-white crown and throat.

She flies in characteristic Marshie style, big, busy flaps over the scrub at the water’s edge. Her long, black primary feathers give a finger-like appearance to the tip of her wings.

Here and there she pauses, lifting with her wings stretched upwards as her long yellow legs drop down below her. She’s looking for unsuspecting waterfowl – often Moorhen – though the crescendo of alarm calls surrounding her surely makes her task difficult.

After several passes and no successful catches, she moved on. But eyes still skyward, there were other fearsome hunters to watch out for.

First, a Kestrel appeared on the scene like a bullet in shape and speed. The black tear-drop under her eye, the black band at the tip of the tail and that short-yet-streamlined shape tell us she’s not a Sparrowhawk.

This one is a female – larger than the male, with no blue-grey head and darker brown plumage.

As if that wasn’t enough, she shows off the Kestrel special – a perfect hover. Unlike Buzzards, who can only give the appearance of hovering by flying into a stiff wind, Kestrels can perform this trick on the stillest of days.

When she moved on, I thought the Marshie had returned. Less noise from the waterfowl, however – and a forked tail soon showed it to be a red kite.

They have a slow manner of flapping and soaring. This one is extremely large, so must also be a female. She soared over the path and tree tops, then briefly out into the open for a photo opp.

Spending most of their time scouring the ground for carrion rather than hunting for themselves (though they are certainly capable of doing so), she quickly clocks me and my camera. Disliking the obvious attention, she moves over the trees and disappears from sight.

Time to move on. With all these birds of prey around, there is unlikely to be much bird activity for a while, so it’s time to go home! Thankfully, I had left a memory card in my camera when I sent it off, so I have some rather charming photos to share from a month ago.

This Jay was posing on old farm machinery, looking decidedly like it was up to something.

We watched each other for a while. It soon realised I wasn’t going to go anywhere, so it produced the treasure it had been hiding and made off.

An acorn! No doubt destined to be hidden in some nook or cranny for consumption at a later date… if the Jay remembers its location.

I have enjoyed photographing behaviour instead of just pretty still shots this week. These birds will be with us throughout winter, so hopefully there will be plenty more shenanigans in the coming weeks!

Thanks for reading. As ever, I’d love to know what you’ve seen this past week or so – wherever you are in the world!

Gem