BIRD NEWS:187

We spent a little while observing and discussing the birds that we could see through the hide window. Through that hide window we could see a black-headed gull on a nest, among other treats.

There were many of the black-headed gulls, a coot, and some baby black-headed gulls to observe!

The island seemed quite crowded with several nest in situ, many with young chicks raising their heads every now and then.

It really was a lovely place to rest and bird-watch, despite my knowing that even without the travel delay that had beset us on our way, and the time taken to fill out a form to allow me to become a member as my birthday gift, we would likely take up the full 2 hours - which we did, and more.

BIRD NEWS:186

Still in the enclosure for black ducks, long tailed ducks and diving ducks, my camera clicked merrily away.

You might very well be asking where the long tailed ducks are...

Well, there is one. Here is another.

The very best shot shows the longest tail, though.

A little further along from the enclosure, and we spotted a swan resting on its nest...

There was just so much to see. My friends had estimated a trip of 11am thru 1pm total, including travel. I did think that that would have been rushing it and was somewhat surprised, although when surprised with a gift of annual membership, that made a short trip well worthwhile - as I can now go back any day for a year. I am planning my first return trip in June! My last shot for today shows the hide window where we next sat down to view the birds.

BIRD NEWS:185

We passed into another hide and saw this line-up in various poses consisting of various species. Our next excitement was inside the hide where we were informed a pair of swallows were investigating and possibly about to build a nest.

Alas these pictures did not come out too clearly, but don't worry - further along in another hide, I got better shots of swallows nesting. Before that, here is another duck at rest, snoozing in the warm late-spring sunshine. I believe my friends identified it as an eider.

A little further along the track circling the reserve clockwise, we spotted this goose having a feed.

We then came up to the enclosure with black ducks, longtailed ducks, and diving ducks. I took several photos here.

BIRD NEWS:184

Here are the other two shots I took as we walked past. A turn or two later and more ducks appeared to be photographed. Not much further than that, and a parent and babies were on view.

Out on yet another lake we spotted these beautiful ducks -

- before wandering along and spotting one at rest. In fact, quite a lot of the birds were resting. We assumed that it was both because they were safe and well fed - just like the birds in my back yard, when there are no cats about.

Talking of at home, there is not much change since my last back yard postings - we still have Curio and Ditty tame enough to fly near and not fly away when I open the window to put seed n suet on the sill. We still have jackdaws nesting in the chimney, plenty of young sparrows and starlings, etc.

BIRD NEWS:183

I managed to get 3-4 really close-up shots of the bird to my delight. On we wandered once again, this time entering one of the numerous hides. Once in position, and my friends sharing their binoculars with one another, this was our view - of 3 different birds.

Furthest out was a goose in the grass, with a lapwing and duck closer to us. 

It was definitely proving to be an exciting trip with multiple photo opportunities arising. As we walked further around the reserve, I took a few shots of this pair.

BIRD NEWS:182

We passed a group of parents with young, as I mentioned in my last post. They took up quite a lot of the track and were heading in the same direction as we were. However, I knew that other birds lay ahead, so stopped taking pictures eventually. Just along the path a little further, out came my camera again!

This time, we were to pass a resting swan with three young cygnets - one even snoozing on its back! It stared at us as we walked past...

Next up, we passed a bird snoozing in the grass to the side - it had pretty colors so I took a couple of shots as we walked by.

We wandered a little further along then my friend pointed out a pheasant right beside us...

BIRD NEWS:181

Here is a sparrow that inadvertently snuck into a photo I was taking of plants on my windowsill. Starlings fluttered down as I placed suet and seed on the sill on the final Saturday of May - and here I managed to get a shot or two of them.

This brings us to another trip out, taken the final Saturday in May. I had no idea I was going out until, en route to work, a friend approached and invited me to the reserve in Arundel after work. I agreed to shift my plans to accommodate the trip eagerly. Below is the first shot I took of the surprise trip upon which I took rather a lot of pictures - meaning I will have been posting more frequently in the past few weeks to catch up.

One parent had just 2-3 chicks, but the other pair of parents had 'rather a lot' as you can see in my next picture! I apologize for the people in the picture - I could not get both the parent bird and chicks in the shot without including my companions.

As we continued the start of our stroll we passed a moorhen also on a wander. We then began to encounter a group of parents and young that allowed for some good photographs as they were so used to humans.