{"id":1972,"date":"2011-06-27T23:06:56","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T22:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1972"},"modified":"2013-11-09T14:15:45","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T14:15:45","slug":"swallows-and-cormorants-seven-sisters-country-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/swallows-and-cormorants-seven-sisters-country-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Swallows and Cormorants (Seven Sisters Country Park)"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The Seven Sisters are a series of coastal erosions on the daunting cliffs of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sevensisters.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">south coast of England<\/a>. Not a likely destination for someone with no head for heights, except for the fact that they can be reached through a wide wetland valley. And that&#39;s good enough for me. I&#39;m fine with heights when I&#39;m at the bottom!<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/seven_sisters_2706119949.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>I wouldn&#39;t be so comfortable up here!<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/seven_sisters_2706119999_219.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The saline lagoon is home to a variety of wading birds, but the avian pick of the day were the cormorants. This one had nearly picked on a fish too large. It took two lengthy attempts before it managed to swallow its catch.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/cormorant_2706119999_16.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/cormorant_2706119999_54.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/cormorant_2706119999_76.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>It was watched from the far shore, by some comrades who were clearly discussing the size of the catch: &#39;It was this big, I tell you.&#39;<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/cormorant_sheep_2706119999_113.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Among the other birds we saw were swans, herons and little egrets. And swallows. Lots of swallows.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/swallow_2706119999_189.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/swallow_2706119999_194.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>This next sequence shows a little of their aerial gymnastics.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/swallow_2706119999_295.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/swallow_2706119999_296.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/swallow_2706119999_297.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>You can&#39;t visit Seven Sisters without seeing sheep. They are scattered across the meadows and help maintain the trim grassland.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/sheep_2706119999_306.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The final pictures for tonight are scarcities, but the first is a plant not an animal. It&#39;s a bee orchid. Carefully protected by a wire cage it has appeared near the edge of the visitor centre, just a few yards from the busy main road that cuts through this part of Sussex.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/bee_orchid_2706119999_332.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>I&#39;ll close with the sight that greeted us in the garden when we arrived back home. The species is hardly rare, but this is part of a once a year event&#8230; the emergence of flying ants. The gulls were already circling above, ready to feast on easy pickings.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/flying_ants_2706119999_364.jpg' \/><\/span> <br \/><span class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=Words\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" alt=\"Nature Blog Network\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span><br \/><i>Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except fo rthe final two which were taken with the EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro IS USM lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[980,1044,1043,991,1003,989],"tags":[743,449,742,135,1165],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","category-coastal","category-farming-2","category-insects-2","category-landscape-2","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-bee-orchid","tag-cormorant","tag-seven-sisters","tag-sheep","tag-swallow","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}