My Deer Fallow

A break in the weather meant I could get out to Bushy Park again as I had a work free day! I went round the main lake today hoping for some better wildfowl and deer than yesterday.

Remember the Wigeon from last weeks post, well its still there...

There were also lots of Egyptian Geese wading through the wet grass after the mornings snow and rain.

I hit the jackpot with deer, both Red (front) and Fallow (back) in one shot...

And one with just Fallow in.

A Gadwall was dabbing around the shallows of the lake at very close quarters.

And a Green Woodpecker flew by , landed on a tree and gave me an err.... record shot.

Bushy Park- Squirrel Surprise

I really want to take advantage of Bushy Park at the moment because of the abundance of waterfowl and other mammals there that can provide great photo opportunities. I decided to take a different route from the normal route around the main lake to see the variety in wildlife around the park.

The woodland was filled with rich autumn colours and so was a certain species of duck....

The beautiful Mandarin....

And not forgetting the female of the species

The local squirrels were eager for food so I managed to dig out some bread for them, obviously not leaving until I had photographed them.

There was also a Cormorant resting on a post, not taking any notice of me.

And a close up....

First Ever Twitch- Grey Phalarope!!!!

It's that time of year now when Phalaropes are dropping into the country from all directions. Around this time back in 1987, when one of Englands biggest and and most destructive storms hit, about 30-40 Phalaropes were sighted spread out around the London area.

Today, David Campbell had invited me to twitch the Grey Phalarope at Home Park, so I set off to meet him at Beddington SF for a quick birdwatch around there first. The sewage farm has one of the largest Tree Sparrow populations, so I was hoping for an easy lifer in the form of one of these birds, and believe it or not I found one easily.....

We also flushed a Jack Snipe (another lifer) which gave quick and unphotographable views but was still a great bird.

Then it was straight on to the Grey Phalarope at Rick Pond in Home Park. We eventually got to the park a long time after we left Beddington as we got lost and went to Bushy Park by accident! Me and David rushed to the scene as it was fading light (bad for photographs) and found the pond, along with the Grey Phalarope 10 minutes later.

It was an amazing bird (mabye a bit scruffy and plain, but it has flown from the another country to get here!) and showed very well; the bird would come up to 1 metre from me and David and it wouldn't even notice us.

I got very close shots of the bird but in fading light so the images may seem a bit blurred....

I did however, manage to get an interesting shot of the bird feeding in the late evening light.....

I managed to get a fairly decent videos of the bird as well.....

Bushy Park- Wigeon Wonder!

I have had a very boring couple of weeks recently as I haven't really gone birdwatching anywhere, but it was a very nice surprise when I found an eclipse male Wigeon at Bushy Park today. Ok, not the rarest of birds (it is in Bushy Park) but it provided a great photo opportunity.

Arrrrr.....

No Egyptian geese today but there were huge numbers of very aggresive and hungry gulls and waterfowl.

Mabye not everybody's cup of tea but I like them

This years macro shots

I have recently been going through my insect shots from earlier in the year, I don't think there are going to be many more opportunities to photograph insects as winter closes in so here is a selection of this years shots.

A Red Admiral confronting a Hoverfly....

A Painted Lady....

A Black Arges Moth (smiley face moth).....



Green veined White....

Hoverfly...

Leafcutter bee...

A shivering Large Yellow Underwing on my finger in freezing cold weather....

A Speckled Wood Butterfly...

A spider trying to climb onto my lens!

A garden snail on the wet grass....