RED CRESTED POCHARDS AT WHELFORD

A sunny afternoon and still 13 degrees when I finished work so stopped off at Whelford nature reserve on my way home. Several red crested pochards present,  engaging in courtship offerings of weed , also tufted duck, mallards, swans, canada geese, long tailed tits, blue tits, robin, dunnock wren, moorhen, coot, heron , and a noisy flock of black headed gulls on and around the island. 

red crested pochards courtship weed offerings

long tailed tits fluttering amongst the branches

spring flowers at Whelford

STANTON - OH THOSE ELUSIVE JAYS!

Stopped off at Stanton park this afternoon; after a quick walk round the near-empty lake, I sat down to watch the bird table.  It was frequented by a  number of species, including blue tits, great tits, coal tits and long tailed tits, together with nuthatch and robin, but although I saw four jays at one time,, none of them visited the bird table, although some were tantalisingly close!  There's always next time....

male chaffinch

coal tit

long tailed tit

those tantalising jays!

female chaffinch

TINY BIRDS AT COATE WATER

Nice to have it drier underfoot at Coate Water today. Sunny weather but with a cool easterly breeze. Spent a little time in Hide 1 where there were good views of a wren, and then stood outside at the back of the hide to try some shots of a couple of goldcrests, difficult to capture because they move so fast and don't give you a chance to focus! My attempts are below!

wren

spent a long time in the sun preening

then was all fluffed up afterwards

a slightly out of focus goldcrest

goldcrest on the move!

cheeky!

SLIMBRIDGE

I have been meaning to visit Slimbridge for a while but wanted a reasonably sunny day, so today I went! 

Species seen included:
mute swan, barnacle geese, canada geese, white fronted geese, greylag geese, tufted duck, mallard, pintail, widgeon, shellduck, shoveler, pochard, teal, little egret, avocet  crane, lapwing, peregrine, oyster catcher, reed bunting, wren, dunnock, chaffinch, robin, bluetit, great tit, house sparrow, jackdaw, rook, moorhen, coot, goldfinch.

There has been a scaup viewed from one of the hides recently but not showing today, however I took photos of a tame one to compare with a tufted duck. 

reed bunting

pintail

avocets

shellduck

pair of jackdaws

white fronted geese

greylag geese

tufted duck 

scaup (tame)  

 

BULLFINCH AT STRATTON WOOD

A late afternoon walk at Stratton Wood today, beautiful blue skies, which showed up the colours of a male bullfinch well. The buds on the trees are beginning to sprout, probably what the bullfinch is after!  Also saw long tailed tits, blue tits, robin and dunnock. 

STANTON PARK

A bit chilly for much of a walk, but stopped by at Stanton to see what was about on the feeders. Another photographer had already set it up for some photos, but surprisingly it was  very quiet. No nuthatches but saw  a few robins, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, long tailed tits and a tree creeper. Then noticed a couple of lambs in the fields by the entrance to the  country park. 

various branches arranged on the feeding station!

coal tit

robin

blue tit

 the same robin

tree creeper

sheep and lamb 

LIDEN LAGOON

A rather cold and breezy walk round the lagoon, with a short sleet  shower as well! Nothing out of the ordinary, the usual tufted ducks, mallards, coots, moorhens, swans and canada geese.  A few pairs of gadwall were there too.

pair of gadwall

canada goose

mallards and daffodils