Monday 14 February 2011

Sun and Showers


I was expecting a nice bright start today but as I arrived at the castle, just after meeting Stephen in the car park, cloud rolled in from the west and it started raining, luckily this was short lived and it dried up after about 10 minutes. A Treecreeper was singing in the car park, the first of 4 either seen or heard this morning and that was just walking to the lake and back! A Grey Heron, which now seems to have settled into an early morning fishing regime was again at the lake as were a pair of Bullfinches and a pair of Mistle Thrushes. A small group of gulls went over very high which consisted of 5 Black Heads and a Common. At least 2 Marsh Tits were at the lake today but heard and not seen.The most unusual birds this morning were 2 Collared Doves, really common in the village but not quite so here, only half a mile away. I had the camera with me, as I'm still trying to get close to a decent photo and failing dismally! Unfortunately I got on the wrong side of a male Chaffinch, we didn't fall out, it was just the light was in the wrong direction! I did get a couple of iffy shots of Song Thrush and Blackbird, I'll keep trying.
Blackbird (sorry you probably knew that already!)

Song Thrush in full song

5 comments:

Greenie said...

Alan ,
Never seen Bullfinches and Mistle Thrushes fishing !
Only kidding , glad the rain didn't last .
Keep pressing that shutter release , The shots will come , eventually .

Warren Baker said...

Can I borrow the Grey Heron for a while alan! Not had one here all month.

That songthrush photo looks remarkably similar to my Fieldfare photo today :-)

Rachel J said...

Saw three hawfinches and two marsh tits at Bedgebury today Al. Happy with that!

Ken. said...

Well done with the Bullfinch's Alan. I have yet to see them this year.

Alan Pavey said...

Hi,

Greenie,I'll let you know if I see those Bullfinches fishing again :-)

I'm lucky we have a Heronry nearby, I prefer your Fieldfare pic, Warren :-)

Great stuff Rach. I would be happy with that!

Ken, we do well for Bullfinches maybe 2-4 pairs each year, do you usually catch up with them on your patch eventually?