I gave my son a lift into Solihull Town Centre at lunchtime today but there was method in my madness as it gave me a good excuse to visit Brueton and Parkridge again!
The birds by the main pool are remarkably tame as they come looking for food. It reminded me of a few years ago when we used to get regular visits from a pair of mallard who took a liking to our garden pond. One year they stayed around for several weeks and used to waddle up to the garage door looking for food. I got that worried about the children feeding them bread that I bought a bag of proper "duck" food from the wild bird food supplier I use. It was interesting that they completely turned their beaks up at this and refused point blank to eat it. Lurking somewhere at the bottom of the dustbin I bought to store bird food is a huge bag of this duck food! Sadly, its probably well out of date otherwise I would take some next time I visit Brueton to see what the ducks there thought of it!
To return to today... Some more photos of
Greylag Goose (and Mallard)
Mallard
Canada Goose
Moorhen
I popped into the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Parkridge where there's a surprise round every corner!
A Grey Heron was still standing sentinel by the pool - even further away this time. Too far for the 70-300mm lens so a heavily cropped record shot.
I had a rather nice slice of Ginger cake in the cafe at the Visitor Centre.
Autumn colours are starting to appear
and I saw several jays collecting acorns as I walked round the park.
9 comments:
I love the feathers on all of your waterfowl....so pretty. We have some acorns beginning to fall here....but sadly no squirrels to get rid of them all for me:) Wonderful trek through the park.....I envy you those beautiful colors of fall. We don't have such a thing here.
Chris - Many thanks. There were lots of squirrels yesterday collecting acorns along with the jays. Pity I can't send some over to you :) Must admit the leaf colours in Autumn are one of the highlights of my year but you get things over there just as good :) (Thinking hummingbirds:) )
The Moorhen's feet make me laugh every time I see them.
There isn't a great deal of colour going on down here yet, just a few glimpses of yellow re and bronze. I hope that all the leaves won't fall before they turn.
Toffeeapple
The Moorhen's feet are just great :)
TBH the colours are just beginning to turn here - I picked the tree with the most colour!!!! We'll have to hope we don't get gales!
:) Yes....but you have fall color and cooler weather....I'd swap places for a week or so. It's still 100 degrees here! Yuck:)
Rohrerbot - LOL! :) I must admit I would hate your heat and humidity - I wilt if it gets over 75 degrees! But I'd swap for a short while for the hummers, butterflies and moths though not so sure about rattlesnakes!!!
Hope it gets cooler for you soon.
Lovely photos again Caroline! I too love the Moorhen feet, well the feet of all the Rail family really :-) The Greylag with its foot up made me laugh too, well captured! I also particularly liked the head shot of the Canada.
How amazing to have had Mallards in the garden!! Well done for buying the proper food but how ungrateful of them to turn their beaks up at it ;-) I often wonder why they like bread so much when it is of little or no nutritional value to them.
ShySongbird - Many thanks Jan! Its lovely the way the more "commoner" species of bird can prove so amusing and interesting :)
The mallards (not sure if they were the same pair or not) visited for several years. We thought initially they were looking for a nest site until Brian found them gobbling up tadpoles!! It is strange about the bread - I suppose its just what they get used to with people feeding them and its an easy meal!
Lovelt photos, the little moorhen feet are just soo cute :)
Gaz: Alternative Eden
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