{"id":1637,"date":"2010-05-23T00:05:43","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T23:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1637"},"modified":"2013-11-10T21:12:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T21:12:53","slug":"woods-mill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/woods-mill\/","title":{"rendered":"Woods Mill"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Woods Mill is a local wildlife reserve, about 15 miles from here. It's quiet spot, but usually provides something worthwhile to see. Last year I saw kestrel chicks<\/a>, and had hopes of a repeat. I was too early, or at least there were no chicks in evidence. The kestrels were though, including this one which perched on the nesting box.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

The sparrowhawks were out as well, though I hadn't expected to see one being mobbed by swallows!
<\/span> <\/p>\n

The ponds were teeming with tadpoles…
<\/span> <\/p>\n

But the real display was just above the small streams that criss-cross the reserve. The beautiful demoiselle damselflies are just beginning to appear. This is a female.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Late afternoon, just before we were leaving, we stopped by a woodland nest box. I've seen these birds before, but have never managed more than a snatched and blurred photo. Today I was in luck. A pair of adult nuthatches were busy gathering grubs for their brood.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

You can just make out a hungry beak in this shot…
<\/span> <\/p>\n

And talking of greedy youngsters, we have a few of those in the garden. Four or five of the cubs were out this evening, creating a touch of mayhem in the borders. They are certainly gaining in confidence…
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Bold was keeping a close eye on them… and as a reward for her patience we gave her an egg.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

But like greedy youngsters everywhere, one of the cubs badgered her so much that she dropped it. The cub made off with its prize.
<\/span>
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: all the Woods Mill shots taken with the EF 400mm f\/5.6L USM lens. The garden photos were taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,990,980,309,4,278,3],"tags":[627,1142,1128,1152,625,1154,1165,200],"class_list":["post-1637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behaviour","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-damselfly","category-foxes","category-tadpole","category-wildlife","tag-beautiful-demoiselle","tag-cub","tag-fox","tag-kestrel","tag-nuthatch","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-swallow","tag-tadpoles","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}