Category Archives: Birds

Giant Mutant Rats?

March 27, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

One of our national newspapers is leading with a story about ‘Giant Mutant Rats’ heading for the UK. Nonsense of course (as are most tabloid wildlife scare stories), but it’s a timely hook to post some photos taken today of our local non-mutant and modestly small Falmer Pond rats. They really can be rather cute, though the setting helps (a lot).

I was actually tracking a flighty little wren which I’ve seen several time recently when I saw the rat. Today was the first time the wren had paused long enough for a photo and just after I took this shot the rat emerged from under the overhanging bank of the pond.

Wren

rat

It scampered in the undergrowth around the edge of the pond, mainly keeping out of sight, but not entirely.

rat

Then back down to the edge of the water, keeping away from the local dog-walkers.

rat

rat

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

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Four Bird Photos

March 26, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

Another very simple blog entry. Four of the local birds around Falmer Pond. All very usual subjects (two ducks, a blackbird and a blue tit), but it’s sometimes worth concentrating on the more commonplace. I’ll start with the blue tit, a subject I hope to be seeing a lot more of in the coming weeks.

Blue tit

That photo was marred by the intervening branches on the trees. Try as I might I couldn’t get a perfect line. I had better luck with this young male blackbird which was still sporting touches of juvenile brown in its plumage.

Blackbird

And so to the ducks. I took several similar shots to this one. It’s the larger of the white ducks out on the small island in the centre of Falmer Pond.

White duck

To close, a simple shot of a female mallard which I’m going to call ‘Happy Landings’ (for fairly obvious reasons).

Duck landing in pond

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

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Little White Duck

March 24, 2014 by Words | Comments Off

That’s the second time I’ve used that particular blog title, though it might seem a touch misleading since I’m going to start today’s entry with a grey collared dove.

Collared dove

Collared dove

Those shots were taken this morning when it was bright out, but cold. It stayed cold all day, and there’s little prospect of it warming up during the week. We may even lose the weak sunshine that helped brighten the middle of the day when I headed out to the fields around north Falmer. The farmers are still busy preparing the fields, and the gulls continue to flock in the tractor’s wake.

Ploughed field and herring gull

Ploughed field and herring gulls

The sharp breeze up on the ridge encouraged me to return to the relative shelter of the village. Plenty of ducks around, taking it in turns to fly circuits of the pond.

flying ducks

And yes, among those three there is indeed a little white duck.

White duck in flight

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

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