Peahen and Sandpipers

I've been seeing this Grande Dame of local bird life for several years now. She appears every now and then and is well known by the locals who I am sure look after her. She's very comfortable around people and cars and seems to roam wherever the fancy takes her. There's a 4-lane carriageway between the north and south sides of Falmer Village. My strong suspicion is that she takes the footbridge to get across the road, which puts a whole new slant on the old joke about how the chicken crosses the road.

I spotted her at the side of the road which runs around Falmer Pond, semi-sheltering from the drizzle.

Whether she truly counts as wild is questionable. More likely, a feral escapee who has adopted the village.

The next photos are definitely wild birds. Common sandpipers to be precise. Four of them, which is a large flock for this little pond.

The ducks are altogether more complicated. There are plenty of wild mallards on the pond, but they've been joined over the years by numerous domestic fowl including the running ducks and white ducks. And it was these feral-domestic birds that feature in the next photo: six persistent drakes and a female white duck (her head is just above the water in this shot). This is very typical duck behaviour.

I'll close with a treat… Mama Vixen in the garden tonight. Still shy, but on the edge of tolerant. I was some way away, and returned again a few minutes after this shot.

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Camera note: all bird shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Fox photographed with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

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This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. derWandersmann

    4 May 2012

    Never cared for pea-fowl, myself … for some reason, I find them difficult to tolerate. But the sandpipers are nice, and you show a typical mallard (I can't judge other species, since I seldom see them) behaviour: gang-rape. Oh, well … it gets us ducklings.
    And Mrs. Shutterbug seems to be relaxing a bit.

  2. gdare

    4 May 2012

    Originally posted by derWandersmann:

    Mrs. Shutterbug

    I don't know if both parents take care of cubs in fox's society :left:

  3. SittingFox

    4 May 2012

    I like the second shot of the peahen. She looks like a dignified old lady grimly enduring the British climate.

  4. Words

    6 May 2012

    dW, the sandpipers are a nice treat, and somewhat unusual to see at a village pond. I have a soft spot for the peahen as she's been around for such a long time. As for the ducks….

  5. Words

    6 May 2012

    Adele, she's a very stoic old bird, that's for sure.

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