It really was a good day today. Warm sunshine, and so much to see. I gathered far too many photos so what’s here barely scratches the surface. I’ll try to keep things simple.
The day started down at Falmer Pond where I took some lovely shots of a trio of juvenile moorhens, and one or two of the heron. No room for any of those. Instead I’ll open with a photo of the male great spotted woodpecker.
I did get one or two shots of the chicks high in their tree, but nothing to improve on yesterday’s photos, so I’ll leave those out.
Staying on the woodpecker theme, the much larger green woodpecker is also quite active. I saw this one (another male) in the woods at lunchtime.
The big news though is that the local colony of herring gulls have been busy and we have lots of new chicks on the roofs at work. This first photo is by the car park.
And this little family group is nesting outside a window of one of the main buildings. She has three chicks, and produced a simialr clutch in the same location last year.
We also have two breeding pairs of lesser black backed gulls. No sign of their chicks yet, but they were a couple of weeks or so behind the herring gulls in 2013. It will be interesting to see if there’s a similar gap this year.
Finally, a short sequence of blue tits, a bird I’m paying close attention to at the moment. The fledglings are getting to that very active and demanding) stage and were hopping between the feeding station and the surrounding trees. This is a very small selection from today’s photos.
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
derwandersmann
7 Jun 2014Quite a collection, Words! That bit of ironwork is a perfect perch for those amateur flyers. The gulls look very healthy, and the chicks look (as usual) ridiculous. I wonder if gulls have a sense of humour?
No much here … I’ve got a couple of semi-decent shots of a mated pair of wild turkeys that hang about the waterworks, but nothing really good, so far … they may have moved into deeper cover.
Words
9 Jun 2014dW, there were a few days there when everything seemed to spring into life at once. It’s already become a little quieter. The gulls can be pretty humourless, but they know how to steal a sandwich when the need arises.
I like the idea of your turkeys hanging out in the waterworks. I just took a look at your photos and they are certainly strange looking fowl.
Darko
7 Jun 2014I like the last one the best!!! And green woodpecker, too. I’ve never seen that bird so far 🙂
Words
9 Jun 2014Darko, thanks! The green woodpeckers are a lot bigger than the great spotted woodpeckers, but they tend to keep out of sight if they can. I’m sure they have a nest nearby.
The blue tits have been a joy to watch.