Greylag Goose and a grass snake swimming

Thursday 28th March

A glorious day, watched nuthatch still working on it's nest hole, the other nest was very quiet, saw one bird go in but didn't see it come out.
Greater Spotted Woodpecker busy in Pirates Wood.
Saw my first Grass snake of the year on Captain's Pool, the GC Grebes are busy building a nest I think and I saw one terrapin enjoying the sunny weather.
Couple of Jays active today and apart from that it was pretty quiet in the area.

Nuthatch at the nest.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

  GSW

Terrapin

Grass snake

Grass snake

Wednesday 27th March

Never get too much time on a wednesday, so just a small outing late morning.
Nuthatches working on two nests, also wren nest building in one of the reserves.
Very quiet around Captain's.

Nuthatch

Canadian Goose attack

Clarke's Mining Bee

Tuesday 26th March

Been busy in the garden today so didn't spend too long out and about, again it's very quiet for the small birds, mostly down to nesting I think.
Did see a Greater spotted woodpecker flying away from by the 3 pools and a heron hunting for frogs in the same area.
Nice to see a Greylag Goose on Captain's which is a first for me.
Took the bridge camera which has taken all of today's photos, used the Raynox 250 on the marmalade fly.

Heron, just waiting

Heron on a walkabout

Nuthatch at the nest

Marmalade Hoverfly

Greylag Goose

Couple of Toads

Great Crested Grebes are still courting

Monday 25th March

Only a short walkabout today, with just a few shots from Captain's Pool

Few B&W (infrared) shots from Dudmaston, taken with Olympus camera which has been converted to infrared.

Few colour shots from Dudmaston, Pentax K20D

Red Crested Pochard

Sunday 24th March

And what a beautiful start to the day, slight frost with plenty of sunshine.
A stroll up to Captain's first thing and was just in time to watch a pair of Mandarins fly in, got a poor shot of the male landing.
Then I saw 11 herons fly over heading in the direction of Bromsgrove.
The Pochards have gone, was nice to see them though while they were here.
Did catch a quick glimpse of a whitethroat.
The Grebes are still a courting.
Canadian Geese were coming and going, they were making me dizzy with there antics and don't they make a noise!
Then had a stroll down the front reserves, but although I could hear lots of birds I didn't spot much and when I got back to Captains the Mandarins had gone.

2 Distant shots of some of the herons.

Mandarin

One of the two Mandarin arriving

Canadian Geese arriving

Heron on lookout

Great Crested Grebes still a courting

Chased off

Weird colours in this one due to the lighting at the time, but nice to see the nuthatches using last year's nest.

Cherry blossom looked nice this morning.

Saturday 23rd March

Early walkabout revealed that it was once again very quiet, Heron flew off from by the 3 pools as I arrived. All the reserves were quiet, 3 Great Crested Grebes on Captains.
Went back to Captain's again just before lunch and after lunch, the one lone GC Grebe seems to have gone, but was very surprised to a pair of Red Crested Pochards, a first for the area, so well chuffed to have seen them.
A buzzard was once again hovering over the back of Captain's, also several toads in action in the margins.

Red Crested Pochard (Male)

Red Crested Pochard (female)

Toad

Wren

Male

Male

Male

Female

Great Crested Grebes

Friday March 22nd

Walkabout today took in the 3 pools reserves and the one by Captain's, all very quiet, heron was sat in the clearing in Captain's reserve.
Amazed to see 3 Great Crested Grebes on Captain's Pool, light was awful but managed to get a few shots of two of them courting, hope they may do it again tomorrow and that the light might be better.
The one that has been hiding in the margins was still there, it seems very shy.
Couple of pics with reasonable light and then it went duller and duller, hope for better tomorrow but that depends on my hay fever.

Thursday March 21st
A no go day due to my hay fever kicking in!

Wednesday March 20th

Not out for long today, well it is wednesday.

I can report that there were two grebes on the pool again, I spotted the female hiding close to the bank, but she is still having nothing to do with the male.

Nuthatch still working on the nest with it's mate very close by and making a hell of a racket.

Can just see the nuthatch hole in this one, it's situated in an awkward position to get a decent photo, but I will try for a better one.

Two sightings of a Kingfisher on my hour walkabout, but yet to see it land.

Brimstone butterfly in the nature reserve, saw a much smaller one but was looking into the light so no idea what it was.

Nuthatch

Nuthatch on the alert

Grey Squirrel

Terrapin enjoying the brief spell of sunshine.

 Nest two photos are of the female close to the bank under some overhanging branches.