Not had a post from Pennington for a while

The hides at Pennington have never reopened since last March. Recently, I have been going for the occasional walk around the lake and through the woods to see what's about. Yesterday, was quite a nice visit, in the sunshine, if not the warmth of Spring! I'd only heard a single Blackcap up until yesterday ... when they kept jumping out in front of me.

Normally, I have to spend hours hunting them down, so that saved me some time! And immediately after, I got another, doing what Warblers are named for ...

Just look at the amount of greenery in that shot. Seems like only yesterday when it was all still bare!

I quite liked this peaceful looking scene. In fact, it was anything but peaceful with a Cetti's in the scrub behind shouting his head off. Some birds just have no respect for nature!

I did get quite a good view of the Cetti's in the end but sadly, no photo this time.

A bit further around and another Blackcap jumped out in front of me. They've all gone mad!

Not much further on and I got my first Willow Warbler, too. Someone else had spotted it first, so I can't take the credit. It was too far away for a photo. It's not only returning Warblers on display. There were loads of Sand Martins over the lake. Not so much a flock as a ravening Mongol horde, with numbers estimated to be in the high hundreds. I've never successfully photographed one that wasn't stationary, so I sat down to have a go. Much harder to get than the Swifts I did last year! For a start they were just a little too far away and I couldn't find a spot where they were reliably slowing down to turn. However, here are the best of a bad bunch ... 

That could go in photobombing, but point the camera and get 3 was par for the course as numbers were so high. I didn't do well with the next one, but unless you follow them, you imagine they just zoom about at top speed all the time hoovering up insects on the wing. They don't. Occasionally they actually stop and hover briefly to delicately pick something off the surface, which this one is doing. So, not a brilliant photo but showing nice behaviour.

Fabulous birds to watch ... if you can keep up with them and I spent ages there. Imagine the thrill of zipping about at high speed a few inches above the water!

So, still some improvements to be made photographing Martins but that's a good excuse to go and do it again. All the while, I never saw a Swallow or anything else amongst them.

Back into the woods and the Chiffchaffs had obviously heard about the Blackcaps shamefully posing in front of the camera and wanted in on the act. It had been singing or whatever it is that Chiffchaffs do, so ID is definite ... and that makes my best shot of one so far this year.

 A lovely little Willow Tit also popped up right in front of the camera.

However, someone didn't get the memo and had only disdain for me

A perfect setting and pose but just sat there, taunting me by resolutely refusing to show its face! To think, I used to like Lollipops!

Song Thrushes are much nicer!

Dunnocks, too!

To me, this one somehow manages to look like a studio set with a Dunnock in it. I don't know why, but it does, although it is completely wild.

From a photographic point of view, that was one of the more successful walks I've done for a while. I even got several additions to my year list.

  • Unknown said:

    Thanks, Mike, It could well have been there. We went there several times with Mr GB's parents who lived just up the road from Solihull.

    I've included a photo of the house frontage, which might help as a memory jogger

    and a photo of the nest

  • Lovely photos, Mike, but I've seen so many NT houses that some of them become blended into a single blur and it can be tough exactly recalling which is which, unfortunately--sorry! The ones most local to us are easier to remember.
  • Unknown said:
    Lovely photos, Mike, but I've seen so many NT houses that some of them become blended into a single blur and it can be tough exactly recalling which is which, unfortunately--sorry! The ones most local to us are easier to remember.

    And to add to that, many can look very similar to others, which can make identification harder.

    A good enough excuse to visit Baddesley Clinton at some time in the future. Wink