Singing in the rain

Hanson Environment Centre - lifting fog

I haven't had a proper trip out with my camera for a couple of weeks - I managed 15 mins in the garden last weekend, photographing the insects uncovered by my pruning activities.  It's nice to see the insect numbers going up, although I suspect they'll be suffering today, as the grey rainy day turned to sleet early afternoon.
Yesterday I was out early and decided to try HESC again, getting early light direction, coupled with the remains of a foggy morning.  I hoped that the overnighting birds might be still around to see, but it was disappointingly quiet on the water and the bund.
The up side was the welter of birdsong to hear. The vegetation around the lakes supports a wide range of small birds and they were definitely enjoying the conditions.  I decided to spend some time in the woodland hide. On the way I crossed the raised walkway and got a good view of a particularly obliging dunnock who cooperated as I photographed his singing efforts.
At the hide I settled down after putting out some food to attract the locals. The usual common birds lined up watching me - great tits, blue tits, robins and chaffinch - all diving in before my back was turned.  I watched for a while as they fed, along with brief glimpses of one of the bank voles and a number of the ubiquitous grey squirrels. Eventually the stars turned up - I'm sure there were both Marsh tits and Willow tits - especially as a man turned up later and tried to educate me in the difference!  I thought I could see the points at the time, but looking at my pictures, I'm still not able to say with 100% confidence which is which :-(
I completed my trip round the area as the rain steadily increased - not a completely uneventful trip thanks to disturbing a person trying to break into a hide, but otherwise unexciting as far as the photo ops were concerned (no, I wasn't going to point a camera openly at the low-life- I was on my own! - but I did go get help!)
Despite the rain, the singing continued unabated. As I was leaving a pair of green woodpeckers flashed across the path ahead of me - I did manage to capture a shot of one as he landed in a tree deep in the copse - satisfying as I'd been hearing them all morning.

Green woodpecker - thinks I didn't see him

Singing dunnock

Marsh or Willow? (I think Willow!)

arriving robin

Marsh or Willow? I think Marsh!

Great tit among the catkins

grey squirrel

Marsh tit?

Song birds step forward!

Song thrush

This blog isn't doing much travelling this week. A couple of walks to work and a trip round Caldecotte North lake this morning and that's about it.
the one common factor in all of these is the increase in songbird activity - definitely more singing more loudly!  both days I managed to walk to work this week there was a song thrush in the trees along the old Walton Lane - I grabbed shots both days, but "day 2" was the best - the thrush was low down in the big hedge - although he soon skipped to the back behind a mass of twigs when he clocked me watching.

Green woodpecker

A gloomy day today, meant I didn't rush out - the light was dreadful for photography really. By the time I did go out (around 8am) a smur of rain blew through, setting the pattern for the morning.
By the time I'd got to the dam at the top of the lake I could see that the boats had pushed most of the birds into the side inlets. I was eyeing the trees at the foot of the dam for song birds - and hopefully woodpecker, when I heard a voice behing me - Keith again, heading for the area behind the pub where he seen Goosander heading.
As usual this part of the lake was teaming with waterfowl, all of which paddled to the opposite bank when they spotted us. Tufted duck, pochard, widgeon, coots, mallard, Canada geese, cormorant, gulls and great crested grebe were all in evidence, with the start of the show the goosander. It was difficult to tell how many as they were all busy feeding, and I don't think we saw them all on the surface at the same time. At least 4 though, all but one that I saw today were female. It's a good place to see these birds though, as the lake isn't very wide here, so they can never move too far away.

Wot do you mean, "fluff"?

Feather maintenance

We rounded the sluice and Keith set out south to his crow rendez-vous, while I did the "hotel loop".  I had an inkling that the damp would make the grassy banks ideal for green woodpeckers. I've seen them here often, but never got a decent photograph, as apart from their good camoflage, they are very wary and exit "stage left" very quickly.
I followed the bank, driving the water birds back across the lake to the where they had started from. I was watching some gadwall, when I caught the movement of a reasonable size bird into a tree in the shrubbery to my right. Sure enough it was a green woodpecker. It tucked itself round the trunk from me, but I did get quite close before he headed south. I turned north to complete the loop and noticed a "lumpy branch" - I was in luck, a second green woodpecker was working on being inconspicuous. He lifted his head to look around ...Got you! My first acceptable green woodpecker shot.
Round the corner a family of swans were performing their morning maintenance, the young now showing their new white feathers in patches.
As my knee was dishing out warning signs, I decided I'd not got south today, but headed for the bridge and the return up the other side of the north lake.  I couldn't ignore the loud and varied songs in the brush areas along the margins on the south lake and made the short detour to the picnic area.  I was in luck - the bull finches were active and I got some good views of them - and one "decent" picture.  It was great to see them flitting through the bushes, along with a large number of the usual reed bunting.
It's a shame the lighting was so challenging, but nevertheless, an enjoyable walk and a couple of "firsts" with the camera.

one of the many groups of tufted duck