Wildlife surprises in Reading, Berkshire

We spent this weekend in Reading, a town just to the west of London. The reason for the trip was a friend's birthday, but we arrived during the afternoon and had a brief while to explore before heading off for the evening. I didn't have my full gear with me, but had taken the 70-300 DO lens, which is great for wandering around with. Reasonably small, but with a decent zoom. I was certainly glad I had it with me.

Our hotel was five minutes from the river (the Thames runs through Reading), and I don't think I have ever seen quite such a gathering of swans in one place. They were out in large flocks, gathering at the water's edge to entertain young and old alike. And causing me no end of problems in trying to figure out the best exposure to capture their plumage against the relative darkness of the water. Here are a few of the shots, but there are several more in the Reading, Berkshire album.

As well as the swans, there were numerous ducks.

And for sheer numbers, the geese were putting on a good show too. The goslings were very cute as well.

But the big surprise was when I looked up in the skies. Not that there were very few seagulls (which is always a surprise) though I did see a couple of black-headed gulls sweep along the river, but a large bird of prey unlike any we see down here on the south coast. The first one I saw was some way off and I struggled to identify it.

It was about the size of a buzzard, but the tail was forked. That suggested a red kite, and I've since checked to see that they are increasingly common in that area. And there are plenty of them.

The full size shots are in the album. I'd would have loved to have had the 400mm lens with me, but the trip confirmed that if I'm traveling light the 70-300 DO is almost unbeatable for flexibility. On checking the shots when I got back home I even seem to have caught a red kite at the point of grabbing something from the air!

I'm still sorting through the shots. For a trip out when I expected next to nothing in the wildlife stakes, I ended up with around 150 shots. And my first red kite! The party was great too! A good weekend 😀

Camera note: all shots taken with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens.

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This Post Has 16 Comments

  1. Vulpes vulpes

    29 Jun 2008

    Wow, swans galore, red kites AND a party – what more could you want! :cheers:

  2. Ukwildlife

    30 Jun 2008

    Nice stuff. Ive been to Reading a few times, but only for the rock festival, which is probably the reason I didn't see much wildlife – the animal kind anyway!

  3. cakkleberrylane

    30 Jun 2008

    Tremendous pictures of the swans! Certainly a lot of them all together. Ducks are always so photogenic! Very interesting, a red kite – beautiful shots!

  4. gdare

    30 Jun 2008

    I have seen so many swans in one place only in Gyor, Hungary, back in 1990. Always nice to watch them :up:

  5. SittingFox

    30 Jun 2008

    I love the fourth picture of all the swan necks and heads! 😀

    Congrats on the kites! 🙂 I think the occasional one that ends up here in the Surrey Hills probably comes from Berkshire.

  6. Cynthia23

    30 Jun 2008

    Awesome photos Words! Great to hear the party was awesome too! :up:

  7. zetorres

    30 Jun 2008

    Amazing this serie of photos! :up:

  8. Words

    30 Jun 2008

    Lois, the swans were amazing. Obviously very happy to have people around to feed them, and not quite living up to their aggressive reputation. The ducks were totally outnumbered for once.

  9. Words

    30 Jun 2008

    Neil, I think that may have been my first time in Reading, though I must have driven past it over the years. I've always avoided the festival, but the river was a surprise. The rest was a collection of warehouses and industrial estates in the bit we were in, plus a wind turbine at the back of the Madjeski Stadium. The river was fab though!

  10. Words

    30 Jun 2008

    Darko, I don't know if they always have that many swans there, but the locals were acting as though this was a normal day so I imagine they do.

  11. Words

    30 Jun 2008

    Cynthia thanks! We had a good time :drunk:

  12. Words

    30 Jun 2008

    Vulpes, yes it was a good weekend!

  13. Words

    30 Jun 2008

    Adele, I tried loads of shots like that one, but getting something that held the detail was a struggle. The kites were a total surprise. Almost as common as the gulls are around our neck of the woods!

  14. Words

    30 Jun 2008

    ZT, thanks! :up:

  15. Flying Red Fox Blog

    8 Jul 2008

    WOW! Lots of lovelly Swans :heart: nice post glad you had a great time 🙂

  16. Words

    8 Jul 2008

    Thanks Mark! It was completely unexpected, so all the nicer for that. 🙂

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