Leave Only Footprints

11/10/2026

Well, guess what I spent my morning doing ? Gorgeous first light lite this one up beautifully . We are so lucky to have them here now , we almost wiped them out — check out below …

🤍 Elegance on legs… but behind that beauty lies a dark chapter in British wildlife history.

With snow-white feathers, a dagger-sharp black bill and those unmistakable golden-yellow feet, the Little Egret looks almost too elegant to be real. Yet this beautiful bird was once driven to the brink by human vanity.

During the 19th century, its delicate breeding plumes became highly fashionable decorations for ladies’ hats. The demand was so enormous that egrets across Europe were slaughtered in vast numbers for their feathers, with breeding birds particularly vulnerable. Their persecution helped fuel the early bird protection movement in Britain and the emergence of the RSPB in 1889.

For decades, Little Egrets were an exceptionally rare sight in the UK. But following stronger protection and a natural expansion northwards from continental Europe, their fortunes changed. More than 100 arrived in Britain in 1989, and in 1996 the first pair bred here in modern times, in Dorset. Today, this once-persecuted bird has become a familiar sight around our coasts, estuaries and wetlands. What a remarkable turnaround!

🪶 Three amazing Little Egret facts

1. Those yellow feet are hunting tools! The egret shuffles them through shallow water to flush out hidden fish and other prey.
2. Lightning-fast reflexes: Its long neck and sharp bill allow it to strike at unsuspecting prey with impressive precision.
3. A seasonal transformation: During the breeding season, delicate ornamental plumes grow from its head, neck and back — the very feathers that once made it a target for the fashion industry.

The next time you see a Little Egret standing gracefully in the shallows, remember its story. A bird once persecuted for its beauty is now a symbol of what protection and changing attitudes can achieve.

Nature deserves to be admired alive, not worn as a fashion statement. 🤍.

04/10/2026

🌿 Don’t underestimate ivy — this climbing plant is one of autumn’s most important wildlife resources.

Often overlooked or even removed from gardens, ivy becomes incredibly valuable as summer fades. Its late-season flowers provide nectar and pollen when surprisingly few other plants are still flowering, making it a vital food source for bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other insects.

And it doesn’t stop there. Ivy berries develop through the winter and provide food for birds such as blackbirds, thrushes and woodpigeons, while the dense evergreen foliage offers shelter and nesting opportunities.

So that patch of ivy covering an old wall or tree might look ordinary to us and even unwanted, but to wildlife it can be a restaurant, shelter and winter food store all rolled into one. 🌿🐝🐦

03/10/2026

Chick number 2!
It’s always such an amazing time when our eggs are hatching but there’s always the risk the egg could be non viable, so it’s wonderful when they emerge 🥰

Some more interesting facts..

❤️ They can form very long-term pair bonds — some pairs remain together for many breeding seasons.
* 🗺️ They’re remarkably site-faithful — adults often return to the same breeding territories year after year.
This is something we’ve seen here at Gibraltar Point with the same pair returning year after year to our raise nesting box

02/10/2026

Who on earth could ever overlook a Dunnock ?

Take a closer look at this little beauty. (- this one’s a juvenile taken earlier this year).

The little brown bird hiding in plain sight… but there’s much more to the Dunnock than meets the eye. 🐦

Often overlooked as it quietly creeps through hedges and leaf litter, the Dunnock is one of Britain’s most familiar garden birds. But behind that understated appearance is a surprisingly complicated social life.

Dunnocks can form unusual breeding arrangements involving three adults ( the little minxes 😮! ) with two males sometimes competing for access to the same female. And rather than simply defending a territory, males may even guard a female closely to try to prevent rival males from mating with her.

They’re also remarkably adaptable, feeding on insects, spiders and other small invertebrates during the breeding season, and then switching to seeds and other food when insects become harder to find.

A quiet little bird with a surprisingly complicated life — perhaps we should look twice at the birds we usually overlook.

LeaveOnlyFootprints

27/09/2026

One of our Oystercatcher parents from this summer that successfully hatched three chicks. Here it’s still sat on two eggs but its first chick , born the day before doesn’t want to be cooped up any longer 😊

The UK’s oystercatcher population is showing a worrying decline, with breeding numbers falling by 23% between 1995 and 2024.
They remain a familiar sight around our coasts, but habitat pressures and reduced breeding success are making it increasingly difficult for these iconic waders to maintain their numbers.

24/09/2026

🐝 Just when you think the bees have disappeared for another year… think again.

Meet the Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) — one of Britain’s latest-flying solitary bees, appearing just as autumn begins and ivy bursts into flower.

There’s something wonderfully timed about these little ones. Their entire adult season is closely linked to the flowering of ivy, and in the right place you can suddenly find the ground alive with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of bees emerging from their underground nests.

And here’s the really fascinating part…

Those huge buzzing gatherings around the nest sites can look like a swarm, but they aren’t. Ivy Bees are solitary bees, and much of that frantic activity is males waiting for females to emerge so they can mate. The males don’t even have a sting! - allowing this dumb old photographer to get nice and close 😊

Amazing facts about Ivy Bees:

1️⃣ They were only first recorded in Britain in 2001, in Dorset.

2️⃣ They’re one of our latest-flying solitary bees, with adults appearing mainly from September into October.

3️⃣ Females excavate their own underground nest chambers and stock them with pollen for their young.

4️⃣ Suitable nesting sites can contain thousands of individual nest burrows, creating an extraordinary spectacle.

5️⃣ Their timing is remarkably precise — ivy provides a vital late-season source of nectar and pollen when many other flowers are fading.

6️⃣ Despite their sometimes spectacular gatherings, every female is still essentially an independent little bee, raising her own offspring underground.

So next time you’re walking past flowering ivy in autumn, stop for a moment and listen. That buzzing may reveal a whole hidden world beneath your feet. 🍂🐝

19/09/2026

Lovely moment with this one yesterday. And that really is the beauty of visiting a nature reserve like Gibraltar Point - just sit still , clear your mind and embrace the outdoors. The benefits for your health are huge and every now and then you’ll get a moment like this.

These arn’t the best shots of a Kingfisher by far, but they do capture one of this country’s most gorgeous birds in a wonderful natural moment.

Interesting fact :

You’re not actually seeing blue… 👀💙

A Kingfisher’s dazzling electric-blue feathers contain no blue pigment at all 😮. The colour is created by the microscopic structure of the feathers scattering light — a remarkable bit of natural engineering.

06/07/2026

30/06/2026

Time to meet our little Ringed Plover chicks 😍

Tiny feet. Massive challenge. 🐣

A newly hatched Ringed Plover chick weighs little more than a few coins, yet within hours it is running across the beach in search of food. Unlike many young birds, these chicks leave the nest almost immediately, relying on their remarkable camouflage and the constant vigilance of their parents to survive.

Sadly, Ringed Plovers have declined across much of the UK over recent decades. Disturbance from people and dogs, habitat loss, and increasing predation all make raising a family a real challenge. Every chick that fledges is a small but important victory for this beautiful coastal species.

If you ever spot fenced-off nesting areas, giving these tiny birds a little extra space can make all the difference.