Swans arrived

 Friday 15th January 2021

Chilly and dull walkabout, not a lot of wildlife to be seen, hoping the weather is going to pick up again soon.

Couple of swans on the pool this morning, an adult and a young one, seemed to be content going backward and forward along the damn wall, Grey wagtail in the stream by the pool.

Several Long Tail Tits, couple of Jays and couple of coal tits in the reserve near to Captains and loads of Grey Squirrels.

Lots of Black headed gulls and mallards in residence also.

Over the fields, a lot of Linnets and Chaffinches were all over the place, mostly sat in the treetops.

There was something swimming in the dead pool toward the rear but couldn't make out what it was, will check again tomorrow.

Black headed Gull

Grey Wagtail in the stream near Captains

Part of the Linnet flock

Grey Wagtail

 

Tuesday 12th January 2021

Pleasant but short walkabout this morning, as well as below, I spotted a Kingfisher, few Jays, Nuthatch, coal tit, long tail tits, Blue and great tits, several Robins, Black headed gulls, blackbirds, sparrows, lots of chaffinch and linnets.

Record shot of Grey Wagtail at Captains, poor shot as he only landed for a second.

Male and female Gooseander on Captain's

Lesser Black Back coming in to land

Robin in the sunshine

Poor record shot Lesser Redpoll through the lounge window, thanks to Jason for the ID on this one as I thought it was a linnet.

Monday 11th January 2021

Black headed gulls after a frozen piece of bread on Captains

Part of the Linnet flock, such a joy to see

Jelly ear fungus

Linnet

Linnets and more

 Saturday January 9th 2021

Still hundreds of Linnets and finches about over the fields, also saw my first Kingfisher of the year at Captain's Pool.

First couple of shots are of part of the huge flock, mainly Linnets with a few Chaffinch amongst them.

Greenfinch

Female linnet

Linnets

Linnet

Chaffinch

Distant shot of Kingfisher

Started to get busy with walkers so called it a day, but all in all had a nice couple of hours.

January 2021

 Well here we are, another new year, lets all hope that this year is much much better than last year, bring on the vaccines I say.

Also hope that there is a lot more wildlife around than there was last year, in particular my favourites  the Hover flies, meanwhile hoping we get a few rare migrant birds while the winter is upon us.

I am out and about most days, so if you see an old man walking around with a camera and looking a little confused then it's probably me, please feel free to stop and have a chat, if there is one thing I am good at it is chatting.

1st January

A bit of snow still lying around, this shot is from top of the field near the Stone sale site.

Same area, flock of linnets is growing by the day

Greenfinch in winter colours

Dunnock getting ready to take off

A few from the first week of January

Panorama of Linnets, probably about 1200 in total now, this is just small section of them, bumped into Jason Kernohan who is a good friend of mine and it is he who inspired me to try my hand at being a naturalist, Jason counts flocks in blocks and then multiplies by section, I'm still no good at this, same goes for my ID work, still a beginner and am always getting in touch with Jason for help, thankfully he is putting up with me for now!

Today is Jan 8th and a right miserable day weather wise, snow, sleet and rain, I did a short walkabout this morning. not many Linnet flocks flying around, but hundreds and hundreds of Linnets and Finches perched in the treetops where ever I looked, also saw several Pheasants in the wild radish field, watched a nuthatch, coal tits and several other small birds in the reserve by Captain's Pool, Captain's Pool is still frozen over.

Horrible day for going out and unless a remarkable improvement happens I will be staying in for the rest of the day.

Hoping now to post a bit more often here, so please check back when you are bored and have nothing better to do.

December catch up

 December 2020

Brief catch up for December, my walks were limited to a health problem, worst part of the month for me was Christmas, not being able to spend some of the festive period with our daughter, son in law and the grand-children was awful, got to be the worst Christmas we have ever had in our household.

So a very short post for December

I did manage a few photos, some through the window.

Quite pleased with this one, took photos of the blue tits in flight then selected and copied them into position, want to do this with a Robin at some point, all the shots need to be taken within a minute or so to ensure the light is correct.

Through the window

Through the window

Redwing

Dec 28th

And we have snow