Although these Whoopers are using standing water, and the two 'ponds' were pretty heavily 'stocked' with them, there were also times when a collection of the Swans appeared 'excited' and more than just a pair where displaying. Chaotic is the word that came to mind!
A number of the Whoopers are beginning to pair up with plenty of display and splash to show for it. Breeding doesn't start until they are 4-5 years old, and they stay together until one dies. Having seen Whooper Swans in Iceland and reading that they pair for life, presumably they travel together so that when in the UK they decide whether they will spend time at Welney (conditions being conducive) or Cottenham for the sugar beet remains!
Yesterday I'd arranged to drop off some things in Cottenham and was 'tipped off' that locals were visiting and photographing masses of Whooper Swans who are relishing feeding on sugar beet fields. It really was a pretty good venue to see a few hundred Whoopers who might otherwise have been based at Welney (but for the extensive flooding there). The walk along a bank was exceptionally muddy but worth the venture and there's plenty of standing water too.
I was photographing straight into the sun, but have emphasised in some of the images just how translucent the outstretched wings can look.
In the first image is the standing water the Whoopers are spending time in, the second image shows how high up the stem of a bullrush the water is, and the third image shows the colour of the wake when a Whooper comes into land on shallow standing water!
I am invariably attracted to colourful sunrises and sunsets. I was glad I noticed the clouds visible from the house picking up colour, so got out into the field just after the sun had disappeared. The intensity of colour in the sky was tremendous and there were some interesting cloud shapes too. I am happy to take some landscape photographs in 'portrait' format.
I don't think I've photographed a Sparrow Hawk before, although I have seen them in the garden and elsewhere - but never with a camera close enough. I was delighted to have spotted the bird of prey and satisfied enough with the technical capture to post a few images here. Photographs were taken 29 January.
I was intrigued by the different amount of frost appearing on the separate pieces of wood on the table top.
Thankfully during the week there aren't so many folk walking on the tow path and I enjoyed watching this female Blackbird finding food. The clouds caught my attention too and the first image suggests two layers of different cloud formation.
Although they may not have actually bred in the garden last year, there were a couple of young which came to feed with parents. Yesterday I saw two Jays but they weren't photographable together. I have no idea how to tell them apart other than to say one of them can hold a lot of peanuts in its mouth at any one time! Its crop appears to have even more peanuts than could be seen in the mouth. The first image is a different Jay from the lower two photographs of the same bird, with all the nuts.
This image is rather small but there is a ferry between the land masses and on the horizon making its way to Stornoway I would imagine. That is where we were heading anyway. I'm particularly fond of this photograph because the sea is calm, we'd boarded quite early in the morning so the light was changing constantly, and I took a lot of photographs: I hadn't been to the Outer Hebrides before. Mostly I was taking seascapes but occasionally there was birdlife and marine mammals but nothing close enough to photograph with conviction. Another time!
A couple of years ago I had two Swift nesting boxes attached to the chimney on this bungalow. Even though Swifts prefer a higher nesting site with plenty of space in front of the boxes, the likelihood of them choosing these boxes wasn't high! However, at the end of the breeding season last year a few Swifts started to show interest in the boxes - which delighted me hugely. Here is evidence of their interest! And later this year.........?
