Everything is Permuted

I spent lunchtime at local pond, and among the varied bird life this immature duckling was the star. It was swimming happily, drinking from the pond and clambering on to the grassy bank to feed. So I think it fair to say that it's coping well, despite the severe lack of a bill.




There were of course other ducks in the vicinity, rather better endowed in the bill department...


But just as eager to show off their feathers...


And a young moorhen, proudly showing off its new shoes


While all the time, on the far side of the pond a pair of geese were playing a game of 'Who-can-stand-on-one-leg-longest'


Back in the garden tonight, the bold vixen made an appearance. She's been showing up on the trail cam (as has one of the cubs), but it's been about a week since our paths have crossed. Her eye seems to be healing well.


Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens, except the vixen. The shot of her was with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.

After yesterday's success with the kestrels, I headed down to Rottingdean this afternoon. The light was poor, but the sun (such as it is) sits over the sea and reflects off the cliff faces so that even on 'bad' days you get workable conditions. Of course the fulmars were about, as raucous as ever.
Fulmars







But they weren't the only bird that caught my eye. Among the guttural calls of the sea birds, there was a more delicate song. Tiny rock pipits were flitting along the cliff face, quite oblivious to the rest of the activity around them.

Rock pipit

Preening



Those were the main focus of the afternoon, but I do occasionally turn the camera to the sea and I had a couple of long distant surprises when I did. I tend to pick and choose whether I take shots of cormorants when I see them. I'm nearly always too far away and sometimes take a reference shot, but all too often don't bother. However, when I processed this one I was pleased I'd grabbed the shot. It's the nearest to a piebald cormorant that I've come across.
Piebald cormorant

And to cap it off, a little later I glanced out to sea and saw what I thought were four cormorants skimming the surface. I took another reference shot (seeing four together is unusual, at least in this location where they are more generally flying solo or in pairs). When I looked through the lens this is what I saw. Not cormorants at all!
A small flock of brent geese!

No sign of the fox tonight (yet), but the pond is livening up. I saw my first frog of the year, and a pair of adult newts. Spring is most certainly on its way.

Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

We were staying just outside Chichester and the day started well. Several roe deer were out in the field opposite while we enjoyed a 'full english' in the warmth of the hotel dining room. I also spotted what I think must have been a little egret fly over. That, or a swan. We were too distant to identify anything properly, and they were gone by the time we made it outside. I did grab a very snatched - distant - shot of a sparrowhawk as it swooped in front of the trees.
Sparrowhawk at full speed

On the Saturday evening we'd seen a sign for a local Falconry Centre. We searched, but without success. A woman in the local petrol station, where we stopped to ask having driven twice up and down the same road, said she thought it had closed a while ago. A shame, but it put us back on course for the planned part of the visit to Chichester Marina. As it turned out, the light was dire, and I was once again forced to shoot at ISO 1000 with an aperture generally wide open to get anything approaching sufficient shutter speed. Plus it was bitterly cold. Even flight shots were awkward as the greyness washed out all the colour. It was my first trip over to the marina, but it won't be the last. There's an amazing array birds, and even on a short trip (we weren't going to stay out for long in those temperatures) I was more than pleased with what I saw.

We started out at a small hide near the marina entrance. It overlooks some reed beds, and almost immediately a heron flew in close.
Heron

A buzzard passed overhead.
Buzzard

Curlews seem to have emerged from nowhere to be among my more common sightings. A large flock flew overhead, and then a little while later when I was photographing the Brent Geese I saw another one.
Curlew and Brent geese

The geese were out in number, behaving more like starlings than anything else (this one works best enlarged).
Brent Geese

We had more sightings of herons, but the real star turned out to be an ice skating swan. We came across the swan on the small canal which runs alongside the Marina. It was mostly frozen over, and this beauty was caught on the ice, unable to gain sufficient 'thrust' for a take off. I'll let the sequence speak for itself.








There was a happy ending though. Someone popped out from one of the house boats with some bread, freed up the ice a bit and the swan made it to water where it was rewarded with a few tidbits.

I'll close with a view along the canal. If you look closely I swear those coots are wearing skates.


There are a few more shots of the heron and geese in the January Birds album. And for those who may have been wondering, my Fox of the Day page is back up and running.

Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.