Sea birds, herons and some pond life

By Words | Published February 28, 2010

We're still under grey clouds, and the rain has been a constant but there have been one or two highlights since I last posted.

On Thursday I was in London, just round the corner from Regent's Park. I only had a few minutes, but that was long enough to spot a pair of nesting herons.

They were perched inside the perimeter of London Zoo, but they roam freely. Unlike these parrots which I photographed through the jungle of fence and enclosure wire. Colourful though!

Today, it was still overcast but I needed to go down to Rottingdean and spent about 45 minutes watching the sea birds.
Oystercatcher

Great Black Backed Gull

Ok, not a sea bird… a pipit clinging to the groynes

And always, the fulmars…

Back in the garden, the bold vixen has been around…

And in the pond, the frogs are rubbing along nicely with the newts…

Nature Blog Network
Camera note: All shots taken with the Canon 40D. the heron and parrots were taken with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens. The sea birds and pipit were photographed with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The fox and the frog/newt shots were with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens. Phew!

This entry was posted in Birds, Foxes, frog, water birds and tagged , , , , , , , , .

18 Comments

  1. gdare March 1, 2010 at 5:03 am #

    Great photos :yes: I needed to check on Wikipedia about pipits, we don`t have them here, therefore there is no Serbian name for them. But they are the same family with sparrows.

  2. RobinL March 1, 2010 at 6:03 am #

    Wow, lovely shots!

  3. Cynthia23 March 1, 2010 at 3:03 pm #

    Nicely done, Words!! :up:

  4. SittingFox March 1, 2010 at 8:03 pm #

    Interesting to see the size comparison of the frog and newt! And the oystercatcher in flight shot is great :up:

    Those parrots are lovely; I wouldn't like to guess an ID. One day I will go to Brazil and expend my entire camera battery on them! :happy:

  5. Words March 2, 2010 at 11:03 pm #

    Darko, the pipits are cute little things. I liked the way it was perched on the rock like that.

  6. Words March 2, 2010 at 11:03 pm #

    Adele, I've no idea what the parrots are (I'd have to go inside the zoo to check). Large birds though and very noisy. It would be wonderful to see them in their natural habitat.

  7. Words March 2, 2010 at 11:03 pm #

    Robin, thanks!

  8. Words March 2, 2010 at 11:03 pm #

    Thanks Erwin!

  9. Words March 2, 2010 at 11:03 pm #

    Thanks Cynthia!

  10. cakkleberrylane March 5, 2010 at 12:03 am #

    How beautiful to see the herons nesting!

  11. Words March 5, 2010 at 9:03 pm #

    Lois, it was a nice sight. 🙂

  12. cakkleberrylane March 6, 2010 at 11:03 am #

    We have a park about an hour away that often has herons and other shore birds and I expect there may be some nesting there too. I've been trying for a month to get time to get time to visit, perhaps this week….

  13. Words March 6, 2010 at 7:03 pm #

    Lois, worth making the trip if you get time. I hope you do.

  14. cakkleberrylane March 8, 2010 at 8:03 pm #

    Thanks, I got there yesterday afternoon.

  15. Words March 8, 2010 at 11:03 pm #

    So I see!

  16. Ukwildlife March 17, 2010 at 8:03 pm #

    Nice selection of photos, I was looking at the nesting herons at Regents yesterday. As for frogs Im yet to see any amphibians yet this year, everything seems to be lagging behind 2009…

  17. Words March 19, 2010 at 7:03 am #

    Neil, things do seem a bit late after the proper winter we had. Or was everything early last year?

  18. Wulpen October 19, 2012 at 8:10 pm #

    Very lovely Pict