"Odds & Sods" (old version) - please add to the new thread 2020 instead !

Yes! Finally got some photos of Wrens. There are a couple who normally lurk at the bottom of our garden. They are almost impossible to photograph, being far away, in the gloom, and flitting about quickly and erratically in various bits of vegetation.

Four or five fledglings appeared. The only reason why I managed to photograph them was because they were preoccupied with screaming at our cats from the relative safety of smalls trees on the other side of the fence. I reckon they are fledglings as an adult would make itself scarce and less visible.

One of the fledglings even hopped all over what we laughingly refer to as a lawn. It even wandered over our small patio. Very dangerous with all the pots able to hide a predator.

I've mostly cropped out a very small bird from the vast expanse of photograph. Even though I managed to get within 20' of them, and had the lens at 300mm, they really are so tiny. They let me that close as they really were fixated on the cats.

Now the power of post processing software, of which I know very little. Most of it looks like black magic to me.

The before shot. A speculative punt into a gloomy tree.

Now the after, when I had fiddled with the bits that were fairly obvious and understandable aka brightness and white balance. Proper experts can work wonders with post processing software.

This fella also appeared on our patch of grass. It is a Thrush.  That's the positive ID over and done with. Now we are into dodgier territory. I think it is a Song Thrush.

Shame the next is a little blurry (I like to think of it as giving motion to the photo - says he, tongue in cheek). Though the real shame is that the bamboo plant support got in the way.

These beauties flew around our house about 20 minutes ago. As they were heading in roughly the same direction (west), I reckon they are going to an airshow. Thus, I shall sit in the garden with my camera, just in case more fly over (e.g. BBMF) or fly back.

I just love my camera. I think it is a mark 14. Griffon engine jobbie?

Yaks perhaps?

Farnborough Air Show starts on Monday for the commercial bit and for the public later in the week.  Bound to be fairly noisy around here for the next week.

Perhaps a tad late for these, but my account request for these forums had been stuck in 'Pending' since Christmas/New Year. I only got round recently to pinging support, who couldn't figure how it had happened, but approved it quickly.

I got bored at home, during the cold snaps, and decided to go photograph the 'reserves' covered with snow. The various lakes and ponds were almost completely frozen over during the first cold snap. Birds congregated on what little open water there was.

It was also a very dry cold spell, with driving, stinging powder snow. Coupled with minus four daytime temperatures (according to my car thermometer whilst in the MGLG car park) and a four to five winds, it was warmer to be in the water.

Most of the wildfowl had congregated to the north west of Colebrook lake (north) on Moor Green Lakes. All dots in the water are bird. The slightly smoother and lighter grey towards the top of the water (the bulk of the lake) is ice.

Zooming in a little on the birds

Singling out the Goosander for no other reason that it looked interesting and I could identify it from the photo when I got home.

North shore of Colebrook from further south along the footpath

A large number of Cormorants had taken over Plover island

Stomping over to Manor farm. All the birds now occupied the north of Cormorant lake. Most of Manor lake and Finch pond was completely frozen.

You'll have to squint, but there is a dotted line running across the area of ice (which is not covered in snow) nearest the camera. They are Fox tracks. A Fox decided to walk across Manor lake (north) whilst the surface was still a little slushy. Its tracks were then filled with snow.

I surmised they were Fox tracks as I found these further east. They were in a large puddle on the main vehicle track through the quarry.

I managed a couple of snaps of a Reed Bunting.

I've cropped out the bird from two photos and merged them into one. There was precious little out in the way of small birds.

Here are the birds on Cormorant lake (south). Mostly Canada geese, Tufted duck and Mallards; from what I could make out with my suspect bird spotting skills.

Zooming in on them

Some took off in the direction of Moor Green Lakes.

Some, like these Mallards couldn't be bothered with all that flying in the driving snow. They look like Curling Stones, tucked up on the ice.

Sadly, this Egyptian goose had damaged its right wing. It struggled up the bank near the pump station, before disappearing into Manor lake (south) on the other side. It best stay in the lake as I spotted at least four different foxes wandering over Manor farm.

There were at least three groups of Roe deer on the Manor farm part of the quarry. Two had the usual stag and two hinds. The third only had two hinds.

Naturally they fled into the driving snow (it was coming in horizontally in the wind) when they spotted me.

I didn't go far into the Fleet Hill farm part of the quarry; as it was the memsahib said I was gone three hours: didn't feel like it to me. The lakes (well, more ponds) were almost completely frozen over. Only the lake I christened swan lake had birds on it.

I managed a couple of fuzzy shots of a Reed bunting. Wasn't fast enough to get a Pied Wagtail, of which there are a lot on the nascent reserves. Other UBB (Unidentified Brown Birds) were too small and too fast for me to have any chance of identifying or photographing.

I also popped down during the second cold snap. This one had the typical British wet snow, with large fluffy flakes. It settled more, rather than being scoured off the landscape by the wind like the powder snow two weeks earlier. Temperatures were also kinder, no more than about minus one or zero. Consequently, the lakes and ponds did not freeze over, and the wildlife was much more dispersed and hard to find.

The Cormorants had moved to their usual haunt of Tern island.

The MGLG hide, overlooking Colebrook, was nicely decked out in snow.

These Blue Tits and Longtail Tits were feasting on the bird feeders in the MGLG car park. They are quite tame. I was no more than 10' (3m) from them. There is another feeding station, further south next to the footpath. I noticed that Robins had ceased hostilities and were happily putting up with each other. I have a photo with four of them, close together, not attempting to do their usual thing of trying to kill each other.

A couple of shots of Cormorant lake without birds.

These chaps made a showing, hopping over from Cormorant lake north to Cormorant lake south.

Glad you are up and running now Angus, these glitches are a real pain. Lovely snowy photographs.

I am not sure Hazel, maybe it is juvie.

Thanks Catlady,  it certainly didn't have the immediate feeling that it was Wilma and it acted somewhat like a juvie as it landed within a few metres which suprised me for normally shy and skittish birds.   We did have a male G.Wagtail that came in three weeks before that so maybe just random Waggies passing through.

Caught red handed - or winged in this case.

I've taken to whizzing peanuts around in a coffee grinder to break up the large nuts into smaller pieces. It is a black art whizzing sufficiently to break up the nuts but not so much as to turn the nuts into dust.

The small birds love the little pieces. However, every now and again the feeder I have the broken nuts in gets depleted dramatically. I had my suspicions: Magpies? Wood Pigeons? Jays? All of above?

This morning, three Magpies furnished me with the proof.

Firstly, these (scrawny) chaps on the main feeder do not worry me.

But this fella is naughty. It shouldn't be depleting the feeder of peanut bits.

I feel a slight modification to the design is called for.  The anti-squirrel dome has thwarted all squirrels. However, it does offer Magpies, Wood Pigeons, Jays etc a platform to stand on.

Raise the feeders to stop them, and the Wood Pigeons stand on top of the feeders to gorge themselves on seeds from the top feeder - and scare off all other birds.

Raise the top feeder, and it becomes difficult for me to refill it.

Stick the seed feeders out on arms, simply allows the Wood pigeons to land on the arms and gorge off the main feeder - even with anti pigeon spikes.

Thinking cap on, me thinks.