Its been a hectic weekend, well, slightly extended weekend, I made good of the better weather on the Friday which meant jobs planned had to be rescheduled, and then rescheduled again....
First, the Friday tasks were moved to Saturday, and then the fencing contractor asked if he could call Saturday instead of Sunday, because he was doing all small jobs like mine, replace and fit fence posts, keeping weekdays for the full fence jobs.
So the weekend was thrown a bit out of kilter, but it all came together nicely.
So, Friday, Brandon Marsh, a nice sunrise to start, but not as spectacular as a week ago....
Even the swans were still asleep!
The first sighting was a muntjac, not a rarity but not for me quite so close, only a few metres as it crossed the track to grab breakie
(No flash, it was a dark track and caught the early morning sun)
It just continued as though I wasn't there, though I'm sure at least one eye was kept on my movement...
As I wandered the path to the first hide, a flock of siskins came down to feed
But soon flew off, and continued breakie in the trees
And of course, there's (nearly) always a robin
And sometimes, a cheeky robin!
From the hides, well, one hide, access to the others was blocked due to a swollen River Sherbourne....
Mr Tuftie
As graceful as often are, Mr Gadwall
The young dinosauromont enjoying the morning sun.
Shovelers doing what shovelers do....
A flotilla of tufted ducks, amassing
The minesweepers practicing.....
The green beret brushing up on the unarmed combat skills...
The strike command on a quick departure...
The flotilla are now in formation
The heavy brigade are airing themselves
Capt S is calling all
Reinforcements are arriving, and on final approach
Cleared to land, now on finals....
Touchdown
Apply reverse thrusters....
A pageant flypast
And the star photo of the day,
Unless I'm mistaken, a lesser red poll
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
PimperneBloke said:Ooh, I read your posts the wrong way round Mike lol
No worries and thank you.
Munty was very calm, which surprised me a lot, but it enabled good photos. The lesser redpoll was a chance sighting, and a first.
TJS said:Hi Mike,
Thank you.
The lesser redpoll was a lucky spot, and a first for me.
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
The photos are very good. I know what it’s like to see a type of bird for the first time. Exspeacialy since I saw a Redpoll for the first time last month aswell. That was exiteing. It’s probably added to the excitement that you got a picture of it aswell
Linda257 said:I think I saw a Redpoll recently Mike....in my reserve lol...congrats on your star photo of the day ;-) that just sat there nicely for you!
I think your wildlife reserve is fantastic, and you're welcome.
Zo Clark said:The photos are very good. I know what it’s like to see a type of bird for the first time. Exspeacialy since I saw a Redpoll for the first time last month aswell. That was exiteing. It’s probably added to the excitement that you got a picture of it aswell
Its always good to grab a rare or first time sighting, even the experienced hands still get excited.
Lot to learn
gaynorsl said:Great variety of birds Mike, and very well put together too:-) I liked your minesweepers and flotilla!! Lovely little Robin stealing the day feeding from your hand.
Thank you Gaynor.
I think the robin that fed from my hand is the same one as last time, it was at the same point as the last time, it seemed to recognise the food pot and flew straight down before I'd opened the lid.
I could be wrong, and it was good to see the little fella sneak a suet pellet and fly off, probably to charm his lady....
As for the flotilla and minesweepers, the conversation in the hide quickly became topical when we watched what was happening. My fault, I just came out with the terms flotilla and minesweepers, and named the cormorant the heavy bomber on standby.
We all had a good chuckle.