You do not often see a wood pigeon encounter a male pheasant...
Nor both encounter a squirrel....Amazing!
The robin was not facing the camera, though.
Oh, there is another Naboo interlude!
There was a male blackbird below the feeders next.
I then managed to capture a blakcbird below and siskin above.
My luck was changing!
We moved along to a hide to watch from and I took more than a few shots. Here are a host of goldfinches with a female pheasant below. I also managed to capture a nuthatch, though the most frequent visitors were blue tit and great tit.
Here is Naboo.
Looking in the other direction there was a squirrel doing the splits while eating...though I was not quick enough to capture the bird I had taken the photo of.
So, back to the goldfinches and female pheasant.
I was trying to capture a coal tit, or nuthatch, or possibly a siskin...
I got a robin in this shot though the bird I wanted flew off.
So, here is Naboo
According to the wildlife trusts- Copyright (C) 2023 The Wildlife Trusts. , birds are in the nightskies via constellations with the following historical beleifs:
There’s even a swan constellation. Mythology says that Cygnus convinced Zeus to let him help a friend who had fallen into a river. Zeus turned Cygnus into a swan and then to honour him for saving his friend, made him into a constellation.
Legend tells us that the constellation of Crater is the cup of the gods. This cup belonged to the god of the skies himself, the venerable archer-god Apollo. And who holds this cup, dressed in black? The raven, Corvus. The story of a creature sent to fetch water for his master, only to stop to eat figs. Corvus loitered too long, waiting for a fig to ripen. When he realised his mistake, the raven returned to Apollo with his cup and brought along the serpent Hydra in his claws as well, claiming that the snake prevented him from filling the cup.
Realising his feathered-friend’s lie, Apollo became angry and tossed the cup (Crater), the snake (Hydra) and the raven (Corvus) into the sky, where they became constellations for all eternity. He further punished the raven by making sure the cup would be out of reach, ensuring he would forever be thirsty.
Our next trip was taken in December 2023 to Warnham Nature Reserve.
From the visitor center gallery we saw mute swan, coot...
...mallard, seagull...
There were other birds out there....Liz spotted teal and I spotted moorhen, and....
... despite having a great camera, I still failed to obtain great shots due to the weather mconditions steaming up the windows!
I doubt you can tell the tufted from the teal.
No better than the Shoreham mist photos of the week before!
So, HERE and HERE are a couple of very short videos of Naboo.
The wood pigeons were gathered together in cluster - as if their cousins around a coffee table at the cafe we had left behind earlier, having a catch up.
There was an infoboard with two birds we often spot described part way along the Dowsnlink path.
Have a picture of Naboo as a breather....
Then it was on with our walk in the freezing cold weather. It actually was just 1 degree celcius, but it was definitely a gloves and hat weathered walk for us.
The chilling mist was still over the River Adur as we returned into Shoreham. I spotted a few pigeons under the railway briudge - so tried to take pictures - but the mist obscured things.
There were a few pigeons there, but alas, the mist darkened the lunchtime skies...
They didn't show up - so have a picture of Naboo as consolation!
HERE
is owl ID info
Goggle's pond had been fixed up after it had been reduced to a pool amongst sloshy mud on our last trip past. Now he stands on his island near a sign displaying a picture of him.
We walked past on our way home from our trip to Arundel. Out next excursion was to Shoreham, where we had coffee...
...and spotted a few city pigeons. This one hopped about under the coffee tables as we waited for our order.
Then it wandered off....along the pedestrian precinct.
Shortly after I replaced my came a in my rucksack, it's mates joined him - but it was a very cold day and I didnt want to keep taking my camera in and out as I had to take my gloves off/on to do so.
After coffee, we wanted to warm up by walking - so walked alongside the river for a while - but it was so misty and cold - we soon stepped one 'block' inland and hiked up the Downslink.
...and what should I spot but a tree filled with wood pigeons - 7-8 of them!
I have circled the tree in the hope you can just make out the peregrine falcon perched on the bare branch if not the other partner hidden more by tree camoflauge.
I took so many shots....persevering.
I tried every setting I could find that might work. Here is Naboo for a break.
Then back to my attempts to get a good shot of the peregrine falcons....that were just too far away for sucssess.
well, I tried....
and failed.
so, here is Naboo eating a peanut!
HEREis info on owls...
I was still hoping the pair of peregrine falcons would show up on the camera pictures - as they did in the noccies.
But alas, they did not show up well.
Showing the whole view you can see just how far that tree is from human and camera eye, though.
Zoom and computer blow up failed to portray what binoculars had.
It was disappointing, as I hadnt seen both birds together in one tree before.
This was the best I could do from this stance.
I moved close to the lapwing hide and got closer to the tree....hopefully.
You might just make out the one on the bare branch in the last two photos....
