Saturday, 21. February 2009, 23:48:44
wakehurst place, birds
We took advantage of the sunshine today to head over to Wakehurst Place, the Sussex home of Kew Garden. It's still early in the year, and the gardens have not yet burst into colour but there is still plenty to see. More photos from today in the
Wakehurst Place 2009 album.
There were ducks...
And there were pheasants...
And there were robins...
But the stars of today's visit were the moorhens which swam, preened, clambered and prowled...
The one unrecorded sighting I should mention was a kingfisher which flew just over the trees while we were watching the moorhen by the lake. It was gone in a flash, but was the nearest and clearest view I've yet had of one.
Still no more on the foxes... still watching and still and waiting...
Update: just after posting this I saw the fox in the garden through the window. It tolerated a torch being shone for a number of seconds, and then retreated slightly and continued watching. No photo though.
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
Monday, 8. December 2008, 00:15:50
wakehurst place, robin, gulls, duck
We went over to Wakehurst Place today. Beautiful sunshine again, but it was cold.
Black headed gull on frozen pondThe gulls were the dominant bird of the day, indeed the weekend. These black-headed gulls were skating around on the pond, and flocking for the few scraps thrown by visitors.
Flocking gullsNormal gull behaviour, but entertaining to watch. The strangest thing though was that as well as all the usual gull antics, they also did this:
Gulls in the treetopI've never seen a gull perch like that before. A quick web search revealed that Bonaparte's gull (a similar - identical? - north American species) does the same trick. I've not come across any other references of gulls perching in trees.
More of the gulls are over
here. But there were other sights at Wakehurst, a number of which are in my
December Birds album. Including this seasonal robin.
Robin And this crazed duck!
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except the flocking gulls which were caught with the much shorter EF 17-40mm 1:4L USM lens.
Wednesday, 3. September 2008, 23:04:36
kingfisher, dragonfly, wakehurst place, fox
The weather turned out quite reasonable today. Breezy, but bright. And Wakehurst Place was relatively quiet, and beginning to show some wonderful autumn colour. I've put a dozen of today's photos in the
Wakehurst Place 2008 album, but here are a few of my personal favourites from the day.
Kingfisher seen from the hide over Loder Valley
Migrant hawker
Mushroom. I think this is called 'The Blusher'.
White baneberry. The berries are highly toxic.On the fox front the nicked-ear vixen is around, but very flighty at the moment and almost impossible to photograph. I've only managed a couple of snatched shots from a distance. Her behaviour is quite typical of the foxes when the weather turns windy. The noise impacts on their ability to distinguish sounds with the result that they jump at
every sound! There's been no sign of the dog fox or the bold vixen. I assume they are somewhere in the general vicinity, but I'm used to the changing patterns during the autumn so their absence isn't anything to be concerned about. It would be nice to see them though!
Camera note: The kingfisher was photographed with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. All the others were taken with with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens.
Sunday, 8. June 2008, 23:26:54
dragonflies, birds, wildlife, wakehurst place
We made another trip out to Wakehurst Place today. There are several more photos in the
album, but these are a tiny sample of over 300 I managed to take. The weather was glorious, but bizarrely about half my shots were taken in deep shade and I struggled to get any light on the subject at all. These included a grey wagtail, a thrush, a young great tit, and mainly a sequence of a demoiselle attacking a pair of mating red damsels.
Damselfly attackThe conditions were rather better at the large pond near the front of Wakehurst. The damsels were very much in evidence, to the delight of the a pied wagtail which was happily feasting. Some swallows swooped down low as well, but as ever were too fast to capture in flight.
Pied Wagtail I also grabbed some shots of my first emperor dragonflies of the year.
Emperor dragonflyAnd my first ever photo of a red-eyed damsel.
Red-eyed damselflyAnd yes, there were one or two ducks about as well.
Ducks in a lineNot that they were keen on the camera
Good night!Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
Friday, 21. March 2008, 22:55:52
wakehurst place, birds
It's about 3 weeks since I last went out to
Wakehurst Place, but the chance of some bright (if cold) weather was too good to miss. The
magnificent magnolia that was in full display has now shed it's blossom, but the birds were out in force, including the robins which for once were being uncommonly cooperative.
There were plenty of ducks there as well.
And I really do mean plenty of ducks. This group were following a group of children down to the water's edge in the hope of being fed. It makes a change from the other main duck activity which seems to be being chased by toddlers! It's something about ducks, I guess but they're impossible to ignore.
Among the other sightings were a small flock of
pied wagtails, blackbirds, chaffinches, dunnocks, and several magnficent pheasants.
More shots in the updated
Wakehurst Place 2008 album.
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens + Kenko 1.4x Pro 300 DG teleconverter.
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