Its been a long time since I've been birding, and even longer since I been birding in Bushy Park, so with a break in the clouds, I headed down to Heron Pond with the Nikon D60.
I had a quick check around the grassland first. Skylark were singing along with a few Meadow Pipit. Green Woodpecker were flying about but the star had to be a female Wheatear- my first for Bushy Park and for the year.
The scene...
It was noticably quiet out on Heron Pond with less wildfowl and gulls on the lake. The Shovelers had gone, along with most of the Tufted Duck and Pochard that had spent the winter here, but a welcome surprise was a superb male Mandarin...
A few Pochard still remained, including several males. I never get bored of the stunning colours of the male. This male was swimming close enough for a frame filling shot...
There are still plenty of Coots about, most have settled down for the breeding season, but a few restless pairs are always too lazy to build a nest and will kick other birds out of nests instead of building their own. Unfortunatly, this happened with the Great crested Grebe family last year.
Look at those evil eyes...
The usual Grey Heron was fishing as it usually does, on its usual perch... pretty usual really.
Heres to a successful breeding season at Bushy... except for the Coots ;)
4 comments:
A great blog you have, these are beautiful, especially the Mandarin Duck. Well done Bill.
great photos.
As for the coots there numbers may be reduced by them killing each other in fights, judging on the recent behaviour Ive seen in Regents and other parks!
Another nice series from Bushy Bill. I must try and get over there soon. FAB.
You captured the colours on that Mandarin very well, good set of photos, Billy.
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