Cygnets and Sparrows

Not posted in a while, due to work, Uni and other problems. However, I'm back.

This spring has been one of the driest in record, with no significant rainfall in the south for months. Bank holiday Monday was the first wet day we'd had in a while and as such I couldn't get out to take any photos. I decided to stay in and take some shots of birds on the feeders.

House Sparrow

At the moment my front garden and feeding station is inundated with these little guys, its not unusual for us to have 20+ in the garden at one time. Took this one as they were waiting on top of the feeding pole, looking a bit dishevelled.

This male House Sparrow wasn't very happy that the kids were hanging around on his feeder so kept chasing them off.

Me and a friend have been following the lives of a pair of Mute swans on our local ponds for a few years. This year the female laid from what we have heard 5 eggs, of which 2 were either stolen or were subject to predation. We aren't sure how true this is because we have only ever seen 3 eggs but it is quite likely that they did have more, this family was subject to egg theft a few years back when the whole clutch was stolen.

Anyway the eggs were laid around the end of March and the first one hatched on Friday 27/05/11, the second the next day and the 3rd was not long after.

Here's a photo from the Saturday morning when I went down at 6 am, after 2 hours of sitting in the cold the little one finally poked its head out.

On the Sunday evening I went down again and this time after an hour and half the female stood up and decided to take the cygnets out for (what we think is) their first swim. I managed to catch a short video of the moment. 

Cyril Hart arboretum and Cannop Ponds.

We went to Cyril Hart arboretum nr Speech House on thursday. There is over 200 species of tree there some of which were pretty cool. We also took a walk along to Speech house lake, which unlike the last time we visited was eerily quiet, hopefully awaiting its winter migrants. 

Coal tit and sparrow 

Blue tit

Chaffinch

Coal tit

Nuthatch

After the arboretum we decided to go check on the Mute swan family at Cannop ponds. We were greeted again by the Little Grebes and this time I managed to get a semi decent shot.

Adult Little Grebe

The Mute swan cob was still chasing ducklings and at one point separated a family of Mallards, with a couple of babies being trapped in the reeds near us.

Mute swan pen after ducking down and stirring the sludge on the bottom up in the hopes of finding a meal.

The cygnets were all flapping and simulating take off's on the water so I don't think it will be long before they leave. 

Bugs and birds

Not been out much lately to take photos due to suffering from hay fever which is leaving me tired amongst other things. Anyway ventured into the garden today to snap a few shots of the local birds. Also got some shots of various insects whilst trying out my macro lens

Greenfinch

Juv. Goldfinch - I have never seen a juvenile Goldfinch before so this was a real treat to see how much they change from baby to adult. You can just see a glimpse of the beauty he will become by the tail.

Heres a shot of the amazing sunset we had on the midsummers day.

Mosquito - Found this little guy on my shed hanging upside down so I flipped the image.

Hover fly in flight - not a very good shot tbh but was my first attempt
Hover fly drinking nectar
Red mite - not sure what species it is and the blue background is a compost bag

Ant

New lens and the garden birdwatch

My 'sidekick' was otherwise engaged today so I didn't travel far. I went for a nice stroll through the woods but didn't see anything of any significance. I did have a fair few visitors at the feeders today, which included:-

Robin

Mouse

Brown Rat who I fear may not have much longer left to live, although they are a pest and spread disease I still don't like to see an innocent animal killed

Goldfinch

I also had a new macro lens come yesterday and decided to have a play around with it today. It was too windy to get any decent shots and there seemed to be hardly any insects around.

The eye of my Crested Gecko, Bob

Love this shot as you can actually see the pollen on the stamens

Mallards Pike and New Fancy - Forest of Dean

Went to the New Fancy viewpoint and Mallards Pike today with Katie from http://lifeintheforestofdean.blogspot.com/, it was pouring with rain the whole time so we didn't see much. I did spot a herd of approx 10 fallow deer grazing near the entrance to Mallards pike car park which we stalked for a while and kept catching glimpses such as the one bellow but they soon lost us in the undergrowth.

Fallow Deer - dama dama

Another Mandarin Male - Aix galericulata
Saw this Goldfinch using my feeders this morning, never had them visit before and took this shot rather quickly through a leaded window hence the poor quality.

Cannop and woodland ramblings

Went to Cannop ponds and walked towards Worrall Hill today with Katie from http://lifeintheforestofdean.blogspot.com/. We went looking for Boar or Deer but saw neither though we did see lots of other species and Blackcaps which I've not seen in about 16 years so I was pretty chuffed.

Mute Swan - Cob
Mute Swan Pen on nest, I was about 10 foot away from her, I only took a couple of photos as I didn't want to disturb her too much but to be honest she didn't seem that worried about us.

Fungus
Fungus
Nuthatch with a Blue tit about to land in the background

Nuthatch

Male and female Mandarin's

Male Mandarin

Male Mandarin

Male Mandarin
Coot, which was either really tall or stood on something in the middle of the ponds lol
Coot again

Chiffchaff

Male Blackcap