{"id":1910,"date":"2011-04-19T23:04:26","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T22:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1910"},"modified":"2013-11-09T16:20:47","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T16:20:47","slug":"big-birds-and-very-little-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/big-birds-and-very-little-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Birds (and very little birds)"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

After a lack of theme yesterday, it feels like I'm back on track. I was once again at the pond, morning and at lunchtime. The weather is beautiful at the moment. Bright, warm sunshine, and it looks set to last.<\/p>\n

As I arrived at the pond, a rare (but not totally unexpected) bird was standing by the edge of the water.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

It's a couple of months since I've seen a heron (the last time was in London) and seeing it against the morning light was an excellent way to start the day. Of course, my real reason for visiting the pond was somewhat smaller, and I wasn't disappointed. The full clutch seems to have moved away (I wonder whether they are being rather better protected out by the island in the centre of the pond where they will avoid most of the predators), but there was one remaining unhatched egg, and a tiny bundle of fluff. Finding an angle, and enough light in the deep shadow, was a struggle.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

Even when the chick paddled over to its parent, the branches proved a reasonable challenge.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

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

While the waterside provides the more obvious highlights, the surrounding trees have their own attractions, especially when the passerines (perching birds) are at their most active. Like this blue tit.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

And these house sparrows (female first, then male).
<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

The penultimate photo for today is a (mistle) thrush, taken at shortly after 1pm so I presume this is lunch. \ud83d\ude09
<\/span> <\/p>\n

And overhead, someone else was also checking out the daily menu :yikes:
<\/span>
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS 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":[990,980,989],"tags":[45,424,1179,1172,264,1154,55],"class_list":["post-1910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-blue-tit","tag-chicks","tag-heron","tag-moorhen","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-thrush","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t