Carl Bovis Nature Photography: A week in Woolacombe!

A couple of months ago I booked a week in Woolacombe, Devon with my family for an Easter break. I was expecting lovely weather to be honest, but it turned out that Winter didn't want to hand over the British environment to Spring just yet and the resulting weather was wet, cold and windy!
Being a lover of wildlife photography, this wasn't great news! Even worse news was the fact my Nikkor 70-300mm lens started developing a fault that got progressively worse day by day! The motor inside seemed to be 'sticking', the lens made a horrible grating noise and the focus jumped all over the place, making taking pictures impossible! After a few seconds the noise and vibrating stopped and I could finally take the picture, but usually by this time the bird had long gone! I was truly fed up with this unexpected turn of events! I wonder if it can be fixed, or even if it is worth trying....might be cheaper to buy a new one! :-(
Still, there were plenty of birds in the woods outside our chalet, including Ravens, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Jays and Buzzards. Tawny Owls called out in the night.
Down by the beach a few Wheatears were on the short grass by the dunes, as well as Meadow Pipits and Stonechats in the scrub.
I still had a nice time walking and swimming all week, but, to be quite frank, I'm now knackered..... I could do with a holiday....

By the way, we stayed at Woolacombe Sands holiday park, a fabulous friendly place to stay, one I can highly recommend! Here's the link to their website;
http://www.woolacombe-sands.co.uk/

Below are some pictures I did manage to get!

^Above^ - Buzzard by our chalet!

^Above^ - Carrion Crow feasting on a dead Fish on the beach.

^Above^ - Male Stonechat

^Above^ - Dunnock near the chalet.

^Above^ - Magpie

^Above^ - A Chiffchaff, swallowing a fly it had caught by our chalet.

^Above^ - Jackdaw

^Above^ - Kestrel hunting on the Sand Dunes.

^Above^ - Wheatear

^Above^ - Daffodils at the Holiday camp confirmed it was actually Springtime!!

^Above^ - Song Thrushes are increasingly a rare sight in my home County of Somerset, but the Holiday Park had plenty of them! Their song was a beautiful sound to wake up to in the mornings and just as lovely to listen to as the sun set in the evenings!