Great Crested Grebe's Nest

Yesterday morning I went to check on the progress of what I think was a second brooding for this pair of Great Crested Grebes. A disaster had struck as far as I could tell, and recently. Instead of one bird incubating on the nest, both birds were behaving as though something was wrong. One bird, I think probably the female, eventually climbed onto the nest to check out what had happened. There weren't any eggs or chicks to be seen anywhere. She then sat on the nest which appeared very wet, but not for long. She then left the nest and before both birds left the area, the remains of the nest sank. I carried these images around in my head all of yesterday, and still don't know what had caused the destruction of the nest. A challenging world for birds...

Little Owls at Worlington

I had been told there was at least one Little Owl chick to expect - and that was all there appears to be. An early start paid off and I was able to capture the chick initially outside the 'nest' - a horizontal hollow telegraph pole - on arrival, followed by an adult returning to the area to feed a grub of some sort to the chick. The adult knew I was there and told the chick to disappear inside the pole, which it did! Decided I should leave after a short while so that the necessary feeding before fledging could continue. May go again tomorrow morning...

Downstream of Clayhithe

Enjoyed a relatively new walk this morning and found some LBJs! Pleased to have caught a Goldfinch in flight (although it isn't sharp) and to have captured what I think is a female Linnet. Someone might be able to confirm whether or not it is? There are three images of warblers which may be the same species, or different. Can't make up my mind which of the two images with the warblers on cowparsley I prefer. Any thoughts?

The Lake, Impington

Wanted to see how the Great Crested Grebe chicks were getting on. There are at least two, and it was interesting to see how demanding the chicks were when a parent bird surfaced (with or without fish). They kicked their feet out behind them and squawked, as if to attract attention. The second chick was just stretching I think.



Coming straight out of the sun to land were a couple of Canada Geese, and it was 'interesting' trying to capture them, in difficult lighting conditions!

More Wicken Fen

Had difficulties yesterday posting any more images on blog. Just one more of Mute Swan with cygnet on its back. Enjoyed seeing what I think were Roe Deer. Sadly the buck was without a right eye, but it didn't stop it racing after the doe at one point! A first for photographing a Little Grebe and a distant image of a Little Egret with its characteristic yellow feet. There was a young surface feeding duck like bird about twice the size of the Dab Chick which I couldn't identify - no sign of any adult around. Perhaps someone will be able to help?

Wicken Fen

Although the light wasn't special this morning, and the wind picked up as the morning progressed, I thoroughly enjoyed capturing a range of birds, some of which I hadn't taken photographs of before. I hadn't seen, or indeed photographed before, a cygnet riding on the back of a parent. What was intriguing was to watch the parent swan continuing to feed with its neck underwater much of the time.

Alongside The Cam

On today's walk there were quite a few different birds to photograph. I hadn't seen a Linnet down there before and it was lovely to take photographs of some of the numerous Whitethroats around.

More images of gulls and terns

More than the two images this time!




Able to confirm that black headed gulls are feeding when they swoop towards the water in this way.




I think this is a Whitethroat. Perhaps someone I know will let me know!

Back again!

Having been photographing birds recently, inspiration has struck and I plan to keep this blog going again. There seems to be so much to photograph these days...

The black headed gull images were taken a couple of weeks' ago at Paxton Pits, and the tern pictures were taken this morning - early! I think the 'little brown job' is a Whitethroat which was singing enthusiastically.

Panned rowing

The weather yesterday morning was quite dull and so I tried some panning of crews, mostly eights, out early on The Cam. There was a single sculler who probably had quite a challenging time with so much else on the river! If I get more such images I might consider a panel of five - time will tell!

Feeding Time at Welney

Last evening was the first time I had been to Welney for an 'after dark' swan feeding session. There weren't as many Whooper swans as I had seen on other occasions, and we didn't see any Bewick swans, although we were advised that we would be able to hear them when we left the hide.
We saw plenty of Pochard though and they bobbed around like corks, particularly when they were diving for grain which had been thrown out for them. There are plenty of challenges to get good photographs in these conditions! It was worth a try! With a dark background the majesty of the swans seemed to be emphasised and it was fun taking some portraits.
Couldn't resist capturing the night lit bridge and bike stand too!