Wednesday 23 October 2013

Frequent heavy showers and a strong gusty wind meant a later start to my patch visit today, but I was still over at the Lakes and Scrubby woods by 08:45hrs, later in the morning some warm sunny spells made a pleasant change.

I was surprised to see the pair of MUTE SWANS still on the Ornamental lake, previous visits by this species have lasted no more than a few hours. A KINGFISHER sat tantalisingly out of camera distance on the same lake, and behind me, on the Main Lake, 11 MALLARD, a GREY HERON and a CORMORANT were seen, these with the scattering of MOORHEN made for quite a busy time - for these waters!

A walk through the Scrubby Woods, then the Wet Woods, in the unlikely hope of turning up a Firecrest or a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was made less likely by the noise of the strong wind through the trees, but I did find a troop of LONG TAILED TITS again, with them were the usual BLUE and GREAT TITS in small numbers, just 3-4 of each, and a couple of COAL TITS, a couple of GOLDCRESTS and a TREECREEPER.

Very little was noted out on the fields, or around Migrant Alley, the odd MEADOW PIPIT flew up, and just one SKYLARK went over, a few BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS also went through. The only birds of note around the Greenhouse Grounds today were the KESTREL pair, but it was interesting to see 3 butterfly species there, first a Comma, then a Small White, and last of all a Small Copper, I was also a bit surprised to see two Common Darters, just goes to show how unseasonably warm it is  :-)

Not much going on at my garden feeders still, I think we need a blast of cold to bring the birds back in!

The light was marginally better today, so I got some more Mute Swam Images.
Mute Swan
I could only take head shots
The birds come too close to fit in the view finder!
Mute Swan
Comma Butterfly, not a nice shot, but the 500mm lens isn't good for macro!
Common Darter, one of two seen soaking up the warm sunshine late this morning


5 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Nice selection Warren, did you take your bread for the Swans? Still nice to see some dragons on the wing. I saw quite a few Common Darter today myself.

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Sillily warm for time of year here deffo need some cold to get the birds to the feeders
Cheers
Daveyman

Unknown said...

great pictures of the swans warren ,would like to vist your patch as im only down the road

Warren Baker said...

Marc,
I did indeed take a few slices of bread today :-)

Warren Baker said...

Simon,
I'll take you round if you like. Leave me a post if you want to take up the offer :-)