The weather finally relented, but more importantly, the original plans for the weekend were thankfully thwarted, so Saturday's tasks were cancelled, meaning Sunday's tasks could be moved to Saturday, leaving Sunday free to play...
The weather generally was dry, sunny and cloudy, and definitely a bit nippy around the gills.
The waterfowl, apart from the coots, some teal, wigeon, tufted, the swans, canada geese, mallard and all the other usual inhabitants were abound, even the little egrets seemed to be quite plentiful, with a but.
The but being, they were restless, or perhaps more likely hungry and restless.
They were wading, as they do, but not finding food, their beaks never broke water, so I can only guess the food was not around for them to take. If the water was cold, then fish would probably be seeking deeper waters.
However, interesting that was to watch, I do enjoy watching animal and bird behaviour, but I'm far from an expert, the feeding stations were busy with the usual small birds, as you wil lsee from the photos below.
I'd spread a little food on the bench along side me to see if I could tempt the birds close.
After a very short while, it worked, especially for the suet pellets....
Even more surprisingly, even the blue and great tits took the challenge on!
What was very surprising, there were two robins among the trees, wanting to get and have a feed, but neither would take the chance!
But the nuthatch never gave up...
I wonder what was going through this ones mind as it looked up at me?
Not the best nuthatch in flight photo, but the opportunities were rare and had to be grabbed when I could....
Yep, I managed to get a photo of a blue tit looking like it had been shot from a cannon.
Well, it had be shot be a Canon, a 5D MkIV to be specific and a 24-105 lens....
A male chaffinch, standing proud
Never a dull day watching nature, there's always something to see.
Unknown said:Beautiful set of photos Mike, the Nuthatches are such stunning looking birds and Mr Chaffie looks very handsome. Great flight captures too.
Thank you Hazel.
I have a bit of a soft spot for the nuthatches, especially their cheeky, and somewhat "bold as brass" nature.
Unknown said:I find most birds can't resist suet pellets - I've fed tits, finches, corvids, hand-fed Robins and even had a Water Rail come out of hiding for them. Oh and mice love them, too - they take them away and stash them for later! I'll have to use them to try and get a few flight shots of small birds myself.
Yes, I've seen small rodents picking out suet pellets that are on the ground in preference to any grain.
It was on my second ever visit to Middleton Lakes back in October 2017 (have I only really been doing this two years), when chatting to another birder who likes to take photos, he called it: "a little bribery", and I've used that as a means to get the photos ever since.
And it works, almost every time.
I find that spring and summer when the insects are about they seem more interested in those than suet pellets, but than that's what they should be chasing, naturally.
gaynorsl said:Lovely pics Mike, good to see the detail on the feathers, and what a handsome fellow is that male Chaffie. The suet pellets were going down well, I suppose I will be starting to feed the local population soon as the weather gets colder.
Thank you Gaynor.
I've made a concerted effort to capturing nature in action this year, rather than the standard poses to coin the phrase. But I'll still grab the posed photos, as you saw with the chaffie.
Unknown said:Lovely photos, Mike--thanks! Nuthatches are great little birds and that one or ones you caught on camera are braver than those down here. Here it would be the Blue and Great Tits who would be the first to grab a bit of food and the Nutties are very shy, while at a few public places we know, the Chaffies would be the first in there for food.
Thank you Ann.
I just love the cheeky, and somewhat "bold as brass" nature the nutties have.
Yes, chaffies are also quite bold, and that particular one would probably have come over for some feed if it wasn't for some noisy dogs running amok behind him.
PimperneBloke said:What a fab set Mike. I've never thought of taking food out with me....something I'll have to consider now, looking at you shots. Splendid looking chaffie, and love the nuthatches...not sure if I've said before was one of the 1st birds I loved as a kid, even bought my mum a little nuthatch ornament lol. And, you know me, always a sucker for flight shots with the wing detail so well detailed :o)
Thank you PB.
Yes, a bit of bribery often works wonders.
Sometimes the birds can be a little slow in coming forward, particularly if they're not used to hand feeding, but patience is a virtue, it will happen.
A word of caution, don't wear sunglasses, they don;t like their own reflection, well, more truthfully, they see the reflection as competition.
And before you know it, they're eating out of your hand.
That photo was taken using my mobile, it was too close for an unwieldy DSLR!