Female Lapwing- up to 10 pairs breeding this year
Female Shelduck, three to four pairs around prospecting
Prospecting Great Crested Grebes
Red Kite- two today, also six Common Buzzards, Hobby, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel
Northern Wheatear- a pair yesterday evening, a couple of Sand Martins around, 30+ Swift yesterday, a few Swallows moving through, Common Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover on the Southern Lake
The first young birds are appearing now, Mallard and Canada Geese chicks are about and Starling young are calling from the eaves of the Obs
Male Kestrel
Alder Fly ( a few caddis in the trap last night and the night before a few moths including Pale Mottled Willows, Common Quaker, Nut Tree Tussock, Light Brown Apple Moth, White Shouldered House Moth and six Platyedra subcineria. Overall been pretty appalling for moths during this cold spring)
Dead Hedgehog (good to know they are still in the area)
Harrowing of the North mound yesterday ahead of seeding with a sacrificial crop
4 comments:
First Swifts over our house in wallinton today. My favourite bird!
Amazing pics once again.
Any tips on taking pics of Kestrels?
Never seems to work for me!
Sad about the Hedgehog since they are declining so badly.
Hi Arjun,
Swifts- amazing bird. Reminds me actually I have to put up my Swift box- trying to get them to breed at the obs.
Photography Kestrels- hovering birds face on look great, soft light, sun behind you, follow them as they step down in the hovering heights, if lucky can get them twisting, fire away when hovering to get lucky when wings are at full stretch, high shutter speed, move around with your own elevation- get on a hill and try and get same height of them, right underneath them gives a different angle, bait a pole with some meat to get them to come to a perch, try and get some shots the moment they take off, land- looks great, legs stretched out and wings twisting to get the right angles.
Yes sad about the Hedgehog but at least we know they are on site. Very few records in recent years.
Cheers Arjun.
Thanks again.
I have one more question which i would be very grateful if you could answer:
There is a pair of Goldcrests in and around our gardens, but they never come to our feeders. What kind of food do they generally like?
Goldcrests glean small insects so not a lot you can do for them on the feeders generally. I've heard stories about crushing peanuts up small. Can get an old tree stump with lots of crevices and twists for hiding insects with moss growing on it- they might come down to check that out and even try rubbing some fat into that or rubbing fat onto the bark of trees (Treecreepers and Wrens generally like that so Goldcrests might too).
Post a Comment