Tag Archives: moorhen

Sunny Day at Falmer Pond

More sunshine today, though I didn’t have long to enjoy it. Still, it was a pleasure not to be dodging rain and there were some nice images among the few photos I had time to take.

In this first one a moorhen investigates the No Fishing sign.

Moorhen and No Fishing sign

And here’s a simple portrait shot of one of its kin, on the glassy still water. Not only no rain, but no wind. 🙂

Moorhen on still pond

The gulls were largely absent, so it was relatively quiet as well; until some noisy ducks flew in over the village.

Trio of ducks flying past village cottage

Duck landing in pond

It took some searching out, but I eventually also found one of the local rats. It had eluded me at first as it was sitting several feet above the water, resting in the fine branches of an overhanging tree.

Rat in tree above Falmer Pond

Rat in tree above Falmer Pond

Rat in tree above Falmer Pond

Back home, Pretty’s mange treatment seems to be having some effect. She’s still scratching at her coat, but much less intensely than before. She is probably now the most consistent of all the fox visitors we’ve had in about 9 years of watching them. There’s barely been a week when she hasn’t appeared, and generally she shows up several times a day.

Fox scratching

Fox not scratching

Camera note: all daytime photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The fox photos are with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Posted in Foxes, mange, rats, water birds Also tagged , , , , |

Flying Muscovy (plus misty sunrise)

A post is two parts tonight, the first section comprising a couple of shots taken early this morning as the sun was competing with the mists over the South Downs.

sunrise through mist

At ground level things weren’t so bad… two moorhens racing across the pond (and dodging gulls) as the light filtered through.

Moorhens racing on pond at sunrise

The remainder of the post is a short sequence of that most ungainly of the local water birds, the male Muscovy duck. Looking at him, it’s hard to believe he could possibly fly.

Muscovy duck

But he can, and here’s the proof.

Muscovy duck

Muscovy duck

Muscovy duck

Muscovy duck

Muscovy duck

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

Posted in sunrise, water birds Also tagged , |

Back to Falmer Wildlife

Well the New Year break is over and it was back to work today which includes my early morning stop at Falmer pond. The water level has risen significantly since I was last here and the No Fishing sign is barely showing above the water. No cormorants today to pose on it.

No Fishing sign

I headed back to the pond at lunchtime. The ground is sodden so it was a matter of picking my way along the boundary road and carefully navigating across the grass banks. If the rains continue I will probably need waders! Naturally some of the local wildlife doesn’t mind a bit of water.

Moorhen

Moorhen

On slightly drier land a young magpie was pecking around for seed.

Magpie

As for the rats, I was surprised to see that despite the absurdly high water level they were still managing to find runs along the edge of the pond, though increasingly they are taking to the water to get around.

rat swimming

The aim of course is to find somewhere dry, like the exposed roots of a tree…

rat in tree roots

Or a handily placed rock…

rat on rock

Just occasionally they even ventured up on to the sodden grass.

rat on grass bank

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

Posted in Birds, rats, water birds Also tagged , , |