What's Buzzing or Flying near you today.... 2014

Jenny's reply to Strongy, from the old thread....

 

Marvelous pics Strongy....don't they all look great given the recent weather that's been thrown at them....
I'm getting a right 'thing' for Herons even though they've had it away with most of my fishthey are such magnificent birds...

 

great pic's indeed Strongy, lovin' the one of the Heron & i couldn't agree more Loli

there is one we see quite regularly as he often flies over our house on his way (to & from) a river in the woods nearby (which we often see him at) & a lake that we regularly walk too with the dogs (again we see him there too)....he even landed on our neighbours roof last year which i took a few pics of...will see if i can find them.....

found them

 

We went to Slimbridge WWT reserve yesterday. There were lots of waders there

Curlews, shovelers and wigeons




Red shanks


Cormorants dived in and out of water constantly


A little egret


My first ever sighting of a water rail

 

Still not many swans arriving from Europe, maybe it's the mild weather or maybe the wrong direction of the winds as one ranger suggested. About 80 or so bewicks swans were here but they were way out on the banks of the River Severn.


Lots of lapwings


But they were having a tough time at the reserve because the peregrines wouldn't leave them alone, they were repeatedly forced to take flight, hundreds of them turning the sky black, and the noise from their cries and wing flappings was so loud .... they grouped together, then separated, swirled and made sudden changes of direction and speed.... we watched and watched with our mouths open in awe. Alas no pictures can do justice to the scene. Still here are a couple of my humble tries.




And eventually we located one of the nemeses of the panic stricken lapwings, it was resting at least 500 metres away, my camera is not really up to the job


We also saw a couple of buzzards quietly waiting for anything that peregrines might leave behind

 

I have only ever seen two Water Rails (briefly) but never got a pic. Well done .

 

Not near me, but in Bristol, Willow txt me today to say she'd seen Pigeons bigger than Chickens.

Have these been blown off course, or is it our native ones that have been feeding at Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station?

 

Great pictures everyone!

I didn't realise how low Cormorants sit in the water, I think they need to off load some ballast.

 

Talking of Pigeons, I noticed two Stock Doves in a tree near me at Upton but I was too late to get a pic as the flew off as I was focusing. They are a little noticed Pigeon being similar to A woodie and a feral Pigeon but are only found in fields and farmland, never in gardens.

Sheal, I understand that they sit that low so that they can reduce movement diving under water.

 

We were really lucky with this. We were sitting in one of the hides and could see something in the reeds but assumed it was just a moorhen and didn't pay much attention. Only when it came out into the open did we realise that it was a bit different to the norm. It then spent a long time feeding along the edge of the reeds right in front of us offering lots of opportunity to take photos

 

armandii

great shots ,