With Stay Local ended I've started going a few miles from home to look for wildlife somewhere a bit different. On Monday I got out with my wife for a walk along the River Deben at Woodbridge for a scene change. The tide was too high most of the time for waders but with the sunny but cold weather there was plenty of small flying insects about and chasing them in the bushes by the river were Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps plus lots of House Martins flying over our heads.
Blackcaps were singing for us.
This bird was darting everywhere chasing flies.
Got one at last.
The Chiffchaffs were also singing a lot.
They also put a lot of time and energy into chasing the little flies
This Wren appeared to be collecting nest material, it disappeared into some Ivy with this beak full.
To finish off, what I assume are some Black-tailed Godwits.
Trevor
More brilliant photos Trevor.
I had to chuckle at the goldcrest piccie, I was out for a wander yesterday, and a guy had managed to get a photo of a male goldcrest hitching a ride on a female!
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
I had my second Covid Jab on Monday so didn't go very far in case of side-effects (as it turned out I had none this time), just a bit of time in the garden and a short local walk.
The garden is very busy with birds at the moment, the Greenfinches, Goldcrests and Chaffinches have returned after a winter of almost complete absence,. The Goldfinches and Greenfinches as well as Great and Blue Tits are regularly collecting cat fur for nests now and the feeders are emptying a bit faster now. We are lucky to live on the edge of a village with open farmland and countryside around us, also we have a few mature trees and lots of hedging (full of house Sparrows).
Recycling cat fur.
Greenfinch eating gone over Danson blossom.
On my short walk I saw a Blackcap again then some Chiffchaffs. The Chiffchaffs are often sitting right at the top of a tree and not easy to get a close photo, this one was at the top of a tree as usual but the tree was only 10-12 feet tall and it flew into it as I was standing next to it.
Going back home I saw a little bird I wasn't sure of, I had one brief chance of a photo as somebody walking their dog was coming the other way and it flew off. As far as I know it's my first ever sighting of a Lesser Redpoll. We never see Redpolls local to where we live and I've only ever seen the Common Redpoll before.
The next day I got a bit further from home for a woodland walk with my wife (Trish) and saw a Tree Creeper, Blackcap and for the second day in a row a Lesser Redpoll and Trish had her first sighting of one.
On a short walk on the edge of Ipswich (our nearest town) to fill in an hour, walking across heathland and Golf course we saw two birds normally too shy to get really close to, a Green Woodpecker and a Jay. The Jay was perched in a tree and I thought I'd never get close enough when a man walking a dog passed under the tree without it fly off, it left the tree and returned a couple of times, on one occasion briefly there were a pair. It's a busy area so the birds just must be used to people moving about.
These are the results.
Nice photos Trevor.
is there any chance your tree creeper can have a word with ours, and tell them its not nice to hide behind branches to throw the cameras AF off!
Lot to learn
TJS said:I seem to have been quite lucky recently in getting clear shots of Tree Creepers and Goldcrests, although there are plenty of other birds that provide plenty of frustrating twigs and leaves. I spent the day at Minsmere on Friday (at last) and spent a lot of time in pursuit of pictures of Cetti's Warblers, I'll report on the results in a separate post in a day or so.
'I must practice more', I like that when Mrs PR says I need to stop at home.....
Another day out with my wife, this time on the Suffolk coast at East Lane just north of Felixstowe. A good place for birds, no facilities beyond a car park and a mixed habitat of fresh water and saline lagoons, reed beds and plenty of small trees and brambles plus some old war-time bunkers popular with Swallows. Whitethroats were about but not close enough to photograph. Here's what else we saw.
Male Linnet
Song Thrush, I think.
Courting Grebes
Sedge Warblers, they were heard singing all over the place.
Plenty of Swans setting up home.
Female and male Reed Buntings
A Kestrel which caught something right in front of us while we were eating lunch and my camera was on the ground.
This is always a good place for Swallows which nest in the old Wartime bunkers here on the coast.
Sand Martins, I spent a lot of time trying to get flight shots, this was the only one close to success.
Meadow Pipits in a field of Rape Seed.
Shelduck and Ringed Plover
And finally a Stonechat
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.