{"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

The Seven Sisters are a series of coastal erosions on the daunting cliffs of the 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's good enough for me. I'm fine with heights when I'm at the bottom!
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I wouldn't be so comfortable up here!
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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.
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It was watched from the far shore, by some comrades who were clearly discussing the size of the catch: 'It was this big, I tell you.'
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Among the other birds we saw were swans, herons and little egrets. And swallows. Lots of swallows.
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This next sequence shows a little of their aerial gymnastics.
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You can't visit Seven Sisters without seeing sheep. They are scattered across the meadows and help maintain the trim grassland.
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The final pictures for tonight are scarcities, but the first is a plant not an animal. It'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.
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I'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… the emergence of flying ants. The gulls were already circling above, ready to feast on easy pickings.
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\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
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":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t