The young house martins featured in recent posts have fledged, but they’ve not gone far and are still a lively addition to the local bird life at Falmer. They’re also keeping the adults busy searching for food, on the wing and down at the edge of the pond. These first two shots were taken yesterday.
That’s a very typical view of these agile and frenetic birds. They spend time sweeping the surface of the pond and then slowly gather in small groups on the fringes to take a breather and find easy pickings in the mud before getting in some more flying time.
I was lucky enough to see a different side of them this morning. A large number of fledglings were congregating on a tiled porch on one of the houses that overlooks the pond. There are a few adults in among them, but the majority have only been out of the nest a short while.
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.