I was out early this morning. Set out towards my local lake where I saw these Coots posturing

It soon turned into an all out brawl

At one point a juvenile got involved, ganging up on the other

I met this guy who was very vocal and did a perfect pose in a tree for me, I took a couple of shots but as it was dark in the wood they came out blurry. I tried to set my tripod up but by the time I had he'd moved, I managed to get some shots though they weren't the ones I wanted.

Mallard ducks had congregated on the banks of the lake, warming up in the early morning sunshine

These guys took flight when a fisherman walked behind them

Thought the early morning dew on this cobweb was pretty cool, so tried out my macro lens. You have to click on it and enlarge it to get the best view

Trying the new lens

Female House Sparrow

First up its the mice or are they baby rats? We aren't so sure now. What do you think?
Female House sparrow

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

Water babies

The cygnets of our local pair of Mute swans have hatched after about 5 weeks of incubation. There are 7 of them and they are very cute.

Heres the pen

The proud father
Mum having a scratch
Cygnet having a scratch

All seven of them
Sunbathing on the nest

Exploring their surroundings, trying everything out with their beaks.

House Sparrow

One of the House sparrow families fledged today, although I didn't get any pictures of the chicks this is dad showing them how its done. Mum was around to and they were both teaching the chicks how to get seeds from dandelions.

Coal tit, Nuthatch and Chaffinch

We put some seed, fat nibbles and fat balls on the table down Cannop to see what we could tempt down.

Nuthatch better shot but still not the best.

Coal tit

Chaffinch