{"id":2349,"date":"2012-08-02T23:08:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T22:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2349"},"modified":"2013-11-03T23:52:30","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T23:52:30","slug":"woods-mill-and-pulborough-brooks-long-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/woods-mill-and-pulborough-brooks-long-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Woods Mill and Pulborough Brooks (long post)"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

With the jet stream slipping southward once again, our weather has become unpredictable (and highly variable). So it was a day of cold breezes, warm sunshine, clouds and some rain. It was beginning to improve by early afternoon which is when we visited Woods Mill<\/a>. To be honest it was quiet… wildlife-wise. There were lots of young children out enjoying the place, and getting involved in supervised pond-dipping and so on; but the bird life was sporadic (I spotted a kestrel), and the dragonfly count was low. The carp were pretty active though, mainly because of children feeding them from the bridge.
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As for more conventional subjects, the only worthwhile sighting was of a pair of beautiful demoiselles. They were in an awkward spot below another bridge, in heavy shade. This is the male.
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The female was busy egg-laying in the slow running water.
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As the afternoon brightened we headed over to the nearby RSPB reserve at Pulborough Brooks<\/a>. Pulborough is a place mainly for long distance viewing, and is famed for its wetland birds, such as this flock of lapwings taking to the air along with a large group of starlings (of all things).
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The lapwings were spectacular, but equally exciting to me was a much more sedate photo. I'd spotted a fallow deer in a nearby field, and then my eye was drawn to a tiny speck of movement in the far distance. This is a fairly hefty crop.
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For close-up shots at Pulborough you can always rely on the rabbits, which excelled themselves today.
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And I think my favourite rabbit shot…
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Finally (and I'm getting near the end of this marathon post), the best bird sighting was outside the visitor centre as we were leaving. There were several greenfinches feeding on a bird-feeder.
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They're always nice to watch, but the main event was just to the right of them: a nuthatch. This is one of those species that, while not uncommon, I very rarely get to see; let alone photograph in decent conditions.
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\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
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Camera note: carp photographed with the EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro IS USM lens. All the other shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 400mm f\/5.6L 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":[980,440,1040,4,8],"tags":[888,879,1181,1128,89,500,625,1130,34],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","category-deer","category-fish-2","category-foxes","category-rabbit","tag-beuatiful-demoiselles","tag-carp","tag-deer","tag-fox","tag-greenfinch","tag-lapwing","tag-nuthatch","tag-rabbit","tag-starling","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