My favourite photo's of 2014..... Merry Christmas!!

It's Christmas Eve, work is finished, Christmas shopping done, cards all sent, presents sent to Santa..... time to relax with a glass of Red and to look back on my photographic year!
    As usual, I wish I had more time out and about in nature, more time to relax and enjoy the healing powers of Somersets countryside and wildlife. The atmosphere on the Somerset Levels is unique, vast areas of flat farmland and wetlands, misty mornings are magical and the sunsets rightly famous!
   The birdlife is incredible! Birds are my passion, particularly the feathered kind...
I'm so lucky to live in a gorgeous, unique, natural enviroment, and to get the chance to photograph and share what I see every day!
 
I also have a Facebook page, which I post to daily, please visit and 'like' if you enjoy my pictures, and say hello!

https://www.facebook.com/CarlBovisNaturePhotography

Below are some of my favourite pictures of the year..... I hope to take many more in 2015!

Merry Christmas everyone...... and thank you for looking!

^ Above ^ - Feed Me...... A parent Blue Tit feeding a youngster in my Somerset garden.

^ Above ^ - Bluebells woods on the beautiful Quantock Hills in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Male Chaffinch at one of my favourite places, RSPB Greylake in Somerset!

^ Above ^ - Our Flat Coated Retriever, Charm, among the Heather on the Quantock Hills.

^ Above ^ - Cute Mute Swan Cygnets at RSPB Greylake....who can resist??!!

^ Above ^ - The late arrival .... Starlings at Dawlish Warren in Devon.

^ Above ^ - Shoveler coming in to land, taken at RSPB Greylake.

^ Above ^ - Swallow coming in to land at Fiddington in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - The devastating floods on the Somerset Levels in February as viewed from Walton Hill. They were a national news event that caused millions of pounds of damage and prompted visits by the Prime Minister, Prince Charles and many other high profile people. This photo was actually taken in the early days of the flooding, incredibly, they got much worse...

^ Above ^ - Goldfinch at RSPB Greylake in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Great Tit at RSPB Greylake in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Greylake sunset

^ Above ^ - Another Greylake sunset!

^ Above ^ - Yet another Greylake sunset!

^ Above ^ - Beautiful Heather on the Quantock Hills in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - 'Water-ski-ing' Herring Gull at Sutton Bingham Reservoir near Yeovil in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Lesser Black Back Gull with a freshwater Clam at Backwell Nature Reserve in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Bye bye Mr Hoopoe! I was sat in the hide at RSPB Greylake on a very quiet late Spring day. I had just said to the only other guy in the hide that no matter how quiet it is, you never know what could turn up.....when an extremely rare and exotic Hoopoe landed from nowhere right in front of us!!! It only stayed a few seconds before flying off...... but was an incredible million to one nature experience!

^ Above ^ - Young Long Tailed Tit at RSPB Greylake....if it wasn't for their long tail, they'd be the smallest birds in Europe!!

^ Above ^ - Hummingbird Hawkmoth feeding..... a day flying moth that behaves exactly like a Hummingbird, hence the name!

^ Above ^ - Six Spot Burnet moth on Clover.

^ Above ^ - Dunnock with moustache! Collecting nesting material at RSPB Greylake.

^ Above ^ - Male Reed Bunting at RSPB Greylake in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Poppies and Daisies near Westonzoyland in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Poppies, Daisies, and Westonzoyland church in the distance.

^ Above ^ - Lone Poppy....

^ Above ^ - Holding on..... a Reed Bunting at RSPB Greylake.

^ Above ^ - Robin at RSPB Greylake.

^ Above ^ - Sand Martin in flight at Westhay Nature Reserve in Somerset... so hard to capture!

^ Above ^ - Wheatear at Sand Point in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Rook and Autumn colours at Sutton Bingham reservoir in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Sparrowhawk in my Somerset garden.

^ Above ^ - Foggy sunrise web.... taken near Othery in Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Murmuration of Starlings at RSPB Greylake.

^ Above ^ - Sunset at Clevedon Pier, Somerset.

^ Above ^ - Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies on Buddleia in my Somerset garden.

^ Above ^ - Common Blue Butterfly on Wavering Down in Somerset.



Hope you enjoyed my nature photographs as much as I enjoyed taking them!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!