A couple of weeks ago when we had Summer, and before the
Autumn like weather we're experiencing at the moment kicked in (!!), I managed to take
these images of emerging Damselflies.
So, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I hope they go some way to brighten up your day and the rest of your weekend.
Banded Demoiselle (male)
Banded Demoiselle (female)
Notice how
her colour changes from iridescent Green to a metallic Gold depending on how
the sun catches her.
I shot this video on 29 May while walking around Caldecotte
Lake in Milton Keynes. I initially started to film a female Mallard and her
twelve ducklings (just for the aahhhh factor!) when out of the blue she was set
upon by a male Mallard and then, to add insult to injury, by a Coot! It wasn't until things had quietened down and I had stopped filming that I heard a
'quack' from up high on the wall and realised what had happened, reviewing the
video later just confirmed my theory.
It would appear that the mother had taken her family into
the' territory' of another pair of Mallards where the female is sitting on a
nest high up on the Ivy clad wall and the male was just protecting his
interest! It can also be seen in the
video that the father of the ducklings is a bit bewildered and isn't sure who
to protect first, them or the female, in the end he does nothing!!
As to why the Coot joined in I can only assume it was just a
Coot being a Coot and not being able to resist joining in on a good fight!!
It all worked out well in the end though....It's tough being
a parent!!
For the last few days this rather bedraggled Blue Tit has,
come rain or shine (mostly rain!!), been visiting the feeders in my garden on a
regular basis, up to three visits per every half hour. Judging by the flight
path I suspect that he/she is busy rearing a nest full of young a couple of
gardens away, unfortunately I can't see where it ends up.
The higher frequency of visits occurring during early
mornings and late afternoons also suggests
the existence of a busy feeding regime.
I'm hoping that this poor bird's dishevelled state has only been caused by the stresses and strains of parenthood and
not by anything more serious, time will tell I guess.
There is another Blue Tit that is also making regular visits
to the feeders and appears to be fit and healthy. I'm not sure however if they
are a 'pair' as this one takes a quite different flight path, although in a
similar direction!
It's been a long time coming but finally it's time to celebrate......this
is my 100th post!
I would just like to say big thank you to all of you followers
and readers that have taken the time not only to view this blog but to also
leave so many kind comments. Thank You.
As I've said it's taken a long time to get to the 100th
post, the first was on the 4th November 2010, this is mainly because, first and
foremost, my main interest is in taking wildlife and nature photographs, and I
find writing an 'interesting' blog a very
drawn out and time consuming task, whatever I write always seems so
uninteresting when I read it back! I
don't know how you folks manage to make
your posts so interesting and readable, and some of you do it every day!!... my
hat goes off to you all.
Just for the record I
'check out' all of your posts daily and enjoy reading all the new updates.
please keep them coming.
Anyway that's enough about
my authoring skills, it's time to celebrate the '100th' and I could think of no
better way than to have a little singsong!
I hope you find the following photos and
video....er...interesting?
Song Thrush
Sedge Warbler
Reed Warbler
Reed Bunting
Chiffchaff
Robin
Magpie
I
don't know how or why but somewhere between putting this video together and
uploading it to YouTube the captions have somehow floated around to a different
position in the frame. I hope it doesn't spoil it to much!
Last Friday myself and Keith went to Paxton Pits in
Cambridgeshire in search of Nightingales.
Following the trend of the last few weeks it was raining
steadily as we arrived at around 6am, after a quick cup of coffee (thanks
Keith) we got togged up and set off in search of our target bird the Nightingale (luscinia megarhynchos),
after walking for about 200yards we heard the unmistakable sound of a
singing Nightingale coming from a stand of thick bushes and trees.
On moving closer we
managed to get a better "fix" on where exactly the singing was coming from, but it
still took the best part of 20 minutes of standing patiently waiting, eyes
straining to see into the darkness of the bushes, before he finally popped up onto
a higher branch and gave us a clear view whilst continuing to sing his
beautiful song. Magic!... our target bird seen and heard in less than 45
minutes and 200yards from the car.
On the one hand I was quite pleased that we had seen and heard
a Nightingale (even more pleasing as it was my Birthday!) but on the other hand
I was rather disappointed that due to the rain and low light getting a decent
photograph was not easy, high ISO resulting in lots of "noise" on the
images.
However we had a good, if rather wet, day out and saw a
great variety of birds, 44 species recorded, and along with my first
Nightingale of the year I also saw my first Swift of the year.
My best image of the day....
After weeks of rain and the disappointment of not getting a decent photograph I was pleased to
see that for Monday the weather man was predicting a day of sunshine and blue
skies so, my mind was made up, it was back to Paxton Pits first thing on Monday
morning!
After a weekend of torrential rain, gusting wind and cold
temperatures Monday, true to the weather man's words, dawned bright and sunny.
On arriving at the reserve I was struck by the eerie silence,
just a few singing birds and apart from the odd Black-Headed Gull very few in the air, I put it down to the
fact that they had been overwhelmed by the atrocious weekend weather and had
not yet recovered.
In the same location as before a Nightingale was half
heartedly singing from deep in the bushes (not a patch on Fridays
performance!). Perhaps this wasn't going to be such a good day after all?
After about an hour's walking through the mud and areas of
standing water, the River Great Ouse which runs along the side of the reserve
was running very fast and high and had broken it's banks in several places, I
heard the sound that I'd been waiting
for and, after a ten minute wait, up into the sunshine popped a singing
Nightingale!
At last I managed to
get a half decent photograph.
And a short video....
And the Nightingale sang.....just for me!.....I'm glad I
went back!
