Recent Wildfowl

Recent Wildfowl...

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 ;)

Why Wingless?

Why Wingless...?

... No, I haven't pulled the wings of it. This is a female Dotted Border (decided to go for just 'large' photos today instead of 'X-Large'. I think you can agree with me when I say an extra large of a wingless moth is a bit in-your-face!) which I saved from frying on the garden patio. The Dotted Border is just one example of a number of species of moth where the females emerge from the cacoon totally wingless and flightless.

I've never seen a 'wingless' female moth before and was quite interested to know why the females are wingless. What benefits could it have and wouldn't it make them more vulnerable from predation? Apparently, this saves the female energy for egg producing as it doesn't have to waste energy flying. Also, it is the males that will come to them, and the females need not stray from the safety of their cocoon before the male finds them.

Ready for her man...

So now you can go back to whatever you were doing, knowing why some female moths are wingless. What more could you want to know?

Long Time, No Speak

Long Time, No Speak...

I'm going to use that excuse that everyone always uses after neglecting a blog... "I've had too much work". No time for birding and photography. Well, also that I can't be arsed to go out in the freezing weather we've had recently... but I prefer the first excuse.
Anyway, yesterday the weather was quite nice, so I brushed the dust of the camera and went to the London Wetland Centre.

On the main lake, two Water Pipits were flying from island to island. There were large numbers of waterfowl, including Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall and Wigeon.

In the trees around the Sheltered Lagoon, two Lesser Redpoll were feeding in the alders with a flock of Goldfinch, and a few Fieldfare and Redwing were a welcome sight (I haven't seen one since they departed the garden back in January!). Shoveler were on the Lagoon, including a showy pair allowing me a few photos...

Male Shoveler...

Female Shoveler- not all that boring when seen up close.

Around at Wildside, a Cetti's Warbler gave a brief burst of song from within the reeds, and on the Reservoir Lagoon, a Bittern had been found, but I didn't see it. Ah well... who needs a Bittern when you've got this shot of a Tuftie!

A personal favourite of the day...

A Grey Heron burst up from the reedbeds...

Other than that it was relatively quiet, although I never knew ducks burped...