It was a lovely, mild, sunny day here today with a definite feeling of Spring in the air so this afternoon I spent a couple of hours walking round Brandon Marsh NR.
After walking through Hope Wood I wandered through Horsetail Glade. A few years ago at this time of year I saw a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker here and I live in hope of finding another one but not today!
With branches bear of leaves its always easy to spot last year's birds' nests.
A real highlight of my trip was this tame robin singing its heart out as I walked along the path between Goose and Central Marsh Pools. Sorry slight overload of robin photos!
For some reasonI just love this photo even though its out of focus.
Distant shot of Mute Swan and Shoveler.
I came across a flock of Lesser Redpolls - only a record shot but believe it or not better than any I have taken before of this species.
Coot on Goose Pool - there was a pair of mallard on this pool who, following a bout of head bobbing, mated.
Blue Tit
Great Crested Grebe on East Marsh Pool - I spotted a pair together but no sign of any courtship behaviour.
Black-headed Gulls on East Marsh Pool
Path alongside Grebe Pool
As this was my first "proper" birding trip of the year I managed to add 11 species to the 2013 year list - Reed Bunting, Shoveler, Mute Swan, Redpoll, Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Oystercatcher, Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck and Lapwing.
On a separate note I seem to be stuck with Blogger's new system of uploading photos. To be fair it is a lot quicker although I haven't a clue how you now change size or position of photos if you want to. Separating the photos manually is a pain compared to the previous system when Blogger did this for you!
Hi there!!! This is outstanding birding! Your shots are wonderful and you should be very proud of those Robin shots. What an incredible group of birds to find.....I only hope to see several of these one day:) Wishing you the best and for more birds to come your way. Chris:)
ReplyDeleteGood to hear you made it to Brandon today,we had a quick visit also between 4pm & 6pm. Got to see Bittern & 2 Barn Owls.
ReplyDeleteRohrerbot - Hi Chris. Many thanks for your lovely comment :) If I am honest the robin was a dream to photo - they are so tame there :) Good birding to you too - look forward to your next post and the wonders you spot and photograph :)
ReplyDeleteCentral Birder - Many thanks Steve. Must have just missed you - I left at 4.00! Well done on the Bittern and Barn Owls (plus Red Kite - never seen one at BM) - I never made it as far as Carlton Hide!
Have just read your blog - had to smile at your mud mishap (sorry!) :) Very muddy on parts of BM today. Nearly left my wellie behind on the path round the back of Grebe Pool - it was like walking in quick sand :)
Central Birder - Meant also to say that I am hoping to go more often this year - at least once a month all being well :)
ReplyDeleteI love that out of focus one too!
ReplyDeleteEm - Oh good! Its not just me then :)
ReplyDeleteHi Caroline :-) What a lovely, uplifting post! You saw lots of interest there and judging by the Mallard activity definite signs of the year moving on.
ReplyDeleteThe Robin series is just beautiful! No danger of overload there :-) What a little poser it was, a photograher's dream. I rarely manage to get so close to them, I suppose they become more confiding in places where they encounter people regularly. That little Blue Tit is sweet too.
I haven't put a post together since the Blogger changes you mention and wasn't aware of them but when I do I will let you know if I come up with anything to help with the difficulties you are having.
What delightful Robin shots, aren't you lucky?
ReplyDeleteDon`t quote me on this Caroline...but your Redpoll could well be a Mealy.
ReplyDeleteShy Songbird - Thank you so much Jan - so glad you enjoyed the post :) I certainly felt a lot happier for my walk :)
ReplyDeleteThe robin(s) round one particular area are exceedingly tame - I think people feed them. Have managed to get close ups of robins before here :)
Would be very interested to hear if you find uploading photos with Blogger different when you next do a post - thank you :) Sometimes I from things people say I get the impression that Blogger change items at different times for people. The photo upload feature now shows little boxes of your images and you have to highlight the ones you want to publish - this bit is fine and certainly uploads much quicker for me. But when you go into your draft post to edit the photo html (or whatever it is called??!!!) is one continuous stream. Its fairly easy to work out where to make the line breaks but easy to make a mistake!!
Toffeeapple
Many thanks - so glad you liked the Robin shots :)
Deano - That's interesting Dean - I've never seen a Mealy (as far as I know!! :) ) I've just had a look at some of the other photos I took (none very good as it was some way away!) and dug out a recent id article on the complications of Lesser, Mealy Greenland type, Mealy Iceland, Coues Arctic and Hornemann's Arctic!!Must admit am a tad confused! :( I'll fetch my Collins Guide and crop some more of the Redpoll shots later.
Thanks for the suggestion :)
Hi Caroline :-) I just popped back to say that I read on another blog that others are having similar problems with photos and Blogger and that it seems to be to do with their browser, Internet Explorer. So if you are on I E it might be worth trying a different browser such as Firefox which I always use and much prefer to I E. I remember you have also mentioned problems with links etc. which I have never had so maybe Firefox would solve that. It might be worth a try and I hope it works for you....but if it doesn't ....don't shoot the messenger ;-)
ReplyDeleteHi Jan :) Thanks so much for your kindness in getting back to me re: photos and Blogger.
ReplyDeleteI don't use IE anymore - got so fed up with it being SO slow. I use Google Chrome. I did try and download Firefox but ended up getting rid of it as it also downloaded stuff like Babylon. Unfortunately I got rid of Firefox but am stuck with Babylon and Funmoods :( I might have another go though if problems persist.
I was using IE when I used to have problems with links and italics but haven't tried since using Chrome so I will try again when I get a minute.
Thanks again for being so thoughtful in getting back to me :) and I would never dream of shooting the messenger :).