BIRD NEWS:702

 

Here is some information about one of the chook breeds they have at Leonardslee. The chooks were all cooped up - assumedly for bird flu avoiding....on this trip.

Back home, and I managed to capture the duo of collared doves sitting in the trees at the end of my yard.

Scottish Goshawks - HERE!

A second baby robin has begun to inhabit the back yard.

On the last day of April, Liz and I went to Lancing/Shoreham. I took a few photos...from our arrival and our first coffee.

It was a nice sunny warmish day and as we sipped our coffees, we were being observed by crows....

...and a few starlings. The latest breed we have observed who hang round cafe tables in the hope of grabbing scraps from soft humans....

We then progressed towards Shoreham, passing a few birds at Widewater Lagoon - including pigeons...and egret.

BIRD NEWS:701

 

I dont have any success photographing the greenfinch at home, but here is a good shot of the one at Warnham.

Even I was fooled initially by this group of wood pigeons...but not for long. It being easter weekend and having known of wooden rabbits in the meadow previously, this 'flock' of fakes was not long in fooling me.

This grey heron had a stick in its beak....After 3-4 choices, it finally chose a twig and flew off to its nest.

Our last photo from Warnham was taken at what seemed to be a farm, or outbuildings with a hen pen and ducks and.... On researching on Google after I got home, I discovered that our outside-reserve wanderings had taken us past an animal sanctuary....

A wood pigeon, collared dove, and greenfinch share the feeder pole in this at-home shot. I was then off out on an other excursion with Liz!

This jackdaw was enjoying the ground between the spring flowers we had come to view at Nymans. Here was a kingfisher wooden sculpture we found - again - in our woodland stroll after Nymans before Leonardslee.

Alas my final shot for today's post was blurred. It depicts a cafe/restaurant sign at Leonardslee with a bird on it....or should do.

HERE is a link to a report on turtle doves in the UK.

BIRD NEWS:700

 

This pair of coots is the answer to the question in my last post, of who laid the eggs in the nest!

Here is an info board that I have previously posted - showing the birds we 'may' see at one hide at Warnham.

Out in the lake swam a....NO! Not a loch ness monster!! It's a great crested grebe.

I know it has a head like a lochness monster, but honestly - tis a GC Grebe!!

It kept diving down into the lake just like the grebe we usually see...but this one was a great crested, which we don't usually see.

That was the last pictureIi took of it. Next, a pheasant. It looked so pretty with its adult mating plumage gleaming in the sunshine...

...that I took a few shots to capture the colors. Soon after it left, a greenfinsh took its place on the log top to munch the mixed wild bird seed.

HERE are some interesting takes - including one on birds and one on owls....

BIRD NEWS:699

 

Here again, the nesting swans at Arundel castle tulip festival. Several of the holes in the tower were occupied by jackdaws - some by pigeon. According to the dry-moat tour, the holes used to be where beams supported floors inside...but the beams rotted and the floors disappeared...leaving holes in the walls - hence birds roosted in the holes.

After the tulip fest we went to picnic lunch at Jubillee Gardens and found a wood pigeon watching our crumb-drops.

Canada geese and what might be teal or mutated mallard inhabited the grass fields where once roamed cattle.

I could not get a good enough shot to tell - but i doubt they are either on seeing the pictures on the computer...i can't see the teal splodge of teal and surely a whole bunch of mallards wouldn't be miscolored? Maybe pochards...? On a latter trip we discovered 5 miscolored mallards that may have been these birds....

Back home, and I tried to get a shot of a greenfinch in the feeder - as we have recently had a pair come to feed on the sunflower hearts. I have yet to get a good shot, but maybe you can at least see a bird....

Our next excursion was to Warnham nature reserve. In one of the ponds, we found a nest of 3-5 eggs - 3 definite, 4 probable, but 5 maybe.

Time to guess.....WHO lay these eggs?

BIRD NEWS:698

 

In the end, we decided to go back to the car and grab Liz's scope so we could assess the assemblage of tree roosters. We managed to pick out 1 grey heron, multiple little egret, one cattle egret.....a wood pigeon and a squirrel. At one point I got excited as our suspected cattle egret - which neither of us had seen before today - appeared to have small grey-black blobs bouncing round the bottom....young? Alas, the scope was unable to depict whether it was a wood pigeon behind the tree they were on or young or something else....so we do not know.

We moved back carwards after a slight camera-stoppage, where I spotted something in the marshlands...

An egret at a distance, but closer to us something I spotted that looked like a godwit but was bigger and.....wasn't a godwit!

It was well camoflauged, but luckily Liz recognised it, as I had never seen one before..... a curlew!

Liz recognised its call, beak, plumage.....she had seen them before. So whattaday! So many new and exciting bird sightings, so many mysteries, some solved but not the little warbler-flycatcher thing in the tree, yet!

On Tuesday, Liz and I went to the tulip festival at Arundel Castle. Not only did we see tulips and other spring flowers - but a swan!

In fact, more than 1 swan.