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...

Hayling Island

Hayling Island...

David Campbell and I spent the day today on an RSPB Guildford walk around the Oysterbeds at Hayling Island.

The group started off at Langstone Harbour where the highlights were Greenshank and a few Mediterranean Gulls in amongst the Black-headed Gulls. Brent Geese were feeding out on the mudflats as were Dunlin, Bar and Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Little Egret and various ducks.

The habour...

Greenshank...

Moorhen...

On to the Oysterbeds, and we immediatly got on to the regular group of about 20 Black-necked Grebes far out in the harbour. Amongst them were a few Great-crested Grebes, and more surprisingly, a female Velvet Scoter which is a new bird for me.

A few Kestrel were hunting over the scrubland for voles, and there were plently of Little Egret fishing along the shoreline. In the pools there were groups of Red-breasted Merganser, and whilst searching through the usual Brent Geese, David found a pair of Pale-bellied Brents- a less common subspecies around here.

Kestrel...

Little Egret...

After the walk, Sean, David and I went off to see if we could find the Green-winged Teal that has been present at Budds Farm SW nearby. There was so sign of the Teal, however Sean found 3 more Mediterranean Gulls.

In all, a great walk, with some great birds to top it off with. Thanks Roger, David and Sean for the lifts!

Waterbirds at Kew

Waterbirds at Kew...

I've probably said this before, but landscape gardens like Kew aren't really my cuppa tea. However, many of the birds there are quite used to humans passing through daily, and so sometimes allow quite good views, which can in turn be good for photography.

The weather today has been brilliant, and so we went to Kew Gardens today to meet family. Of course, I couldn't go without the camera, and after a while of strolling around slightly boring man made gardens, I found a small lake, on which a load of waterbirds were feeding, making good subjects for a few shots...

Greylag Goose...

Mallard...

Coot fighting in the afternoon sunlight...

Bar-headed Goose; one of the exotic species kept in the park, very handsome birds, even if they aren't wild...

Moorhen...

There are a number of Crocuses in flower at the moment in the Gardens, and I took out the wide-angle lens for the following shot, with the temperate houses in the background...

Bosham Brents

Bosham Brents...

The weather hasn't been good enough today to go anywhere, but yesterday, after visiting friends in Chichester, I stopped off at Bosham Harbour to see if anything was around.

Out on the mud, there were Grey Plover, with a few Golden and Ringed Plover mixed in. Oystercatchers and Redshanks were working through the rockpools, but all were too far away for a decent shot. A few Brent Geese landed in the small car park by the seafront and argued with each other like they do...

Brent Geese...

After a while, it started to get windy and the light began to fade, so we decided it was time to go home.

Garden Birds

Garden Birds...

The camera has stayed in its case for a week, which is quite a rare occasion. However, the garden has been quite active this morning with a few Long tailed tits and a very aggressive Great tit, so I took the most of the opportunity.

Great tit...

Long-tailed tit...

Woodpigeon...

Grebes Galore at Teddington

Grebes Galore at Teddington...

Took a stroll along the river at Teddington Lock this morning to try and catch up with a Black-necked Grebe that has been seen there the last few days.
After a while of searching around the Lock, sure enough, in the river, staring straight at us, was the Black-necked Grebe! At first it was quite far out, but soon dived and resurfaced relitively close.

Also on the Lock were plenty of Cormorants, and the Black necked Grebe's bigger cousin, the Great crested Grebe.

Black-necked Grebe...

Great-crested Grebe...

Cormorant...

Right, now back to English, Music and ICT coursework all for next week (arrggghh!)... I wouldn't be as behind on them if I hadn't gone for that Grebe!

100th Post

100th Post...

It's the blog's 100th post (yay!) and I don't really have anything spectacular to celebrate it with. A short afternoon visit to Pen Ponds in Richmond Park earlier today was the first time I've been out photographing this February.

There is usually a large variety of wildfowl present on the two lakes, with Wigeon, Pochard, Teal, Gadwall and Shovelers wintering in healthy numbers, however, today there were only a few Shovelers. Most of them were way out in the middle of the lake, but two birds were slightly more obliging, and although they weren't coming for bread (luckily!) and were quite shy, I managed to sneak up on them and get a few shots...

Shoveler

An interesting sunset

Tommorow I'm doing another local twitch to a Black-necked Grebe that been present at Teddington Lock for the last couple of day, a few minutes drive away. Fingers crossed it stays till morning!

The Moon

The Moon...

I took the photo below on Sunday 31st, the day after the full moon. I've never actually taken a photo of the moon before, but it was very bright and extremely hard to miss so I gave it a try. After playing around with the camera settings, I finally settled at f/6.3, Shutter speed 1/250 and exp. compensation -3.0... Still got a lot to learn though.