A martin feeding over the River Severn at Epney

I couldn't resist parking by the river at Epney today, near to the Anchor Inn, which I managed to avoid visiting. The tide was quite high and the river was running fast. 

When I first looked across to the river's west bank, on the side of the Forest of Dean, I didn't see any martins nearby. Then gradually they appeared as usual in one and twos and then in groups of twenty or thirty. They seem to fly inland over nearby fields and trees to find insects on the wing and then return to the water which must attract different flying beasties.

The martins nest in a very high wall which provides both protection to the land from flooding as well as stopping the powerful erosive forces of the river as it turns round the last of the major sweeping meanders of the river, before its path narrows as the tidal effects lessen.

I spent a few minutes watching the martins as they watched me with my camera. I had no choice but to manually focus which of course meant I only have a few sharp images. This is one of the better ones taken as this bird swooped over the water close to the wall.