15 December, 2010

Not Quite As Good As Waxwings

Not Quite As Good As Waxwings

After the other day's excitement of a whole post on something slightly interesting, I decided to bring myself back to good old reality with a trip to one of my two only favourite local patches, Home Park (like Bushy Park, but smaller and with some big Hampton Court Palace thing or something at one end).

Home Park has the advantage over Bushy Park of being much less busier, and this is reflected in the birds being slightly more obliging. Being covered in ant hills and short grassland, the park is home to a thriving population of Green Woodpecker, and its hard to walk a few paces without sending one screeching into the air. Here's one chilled...


Rick's Pond usually holds a large number of waterfowl, but with the pond thickly frozen over, there wasn't much. A Mute Swan was preening however (I know, heart racing stuff)...


It was a different story on the drainage pond nearbly, where the water was ice-free and so contained a large concentration of ducks, including a nice flock of Gadwall which, as I walked up to expecting to recieve pleading quacks for bread, flew off to the other side of the pond and never let me get close. Two female Shoveler were also giving me the slip.
Have you ever seen a better photograph of a Shoveler or Gadwall? I think not.


Heres a Mallard for your troubles...


And some more Swans...

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