West End Cygnets - further update

I've not had a great deal of time to do some local patch birding this week - not that I'm complaining though.

Today I had the inevitable food shop to keep me going to over the weekend and as West End Pond is on the way back, I'd packed my camera - "just in case".

I'm happy to report that the three cygnets are still there and my, they have grown. Today I had my own camera with me and I'm reasonably pleased with the results. I was experimenting using Shutter Speed priority - I've got a bit stuck in a rut using aperture priority and I think it's an improvement. Intermittent sunshine and some clouds were the shooting conditions.

The usual other birds about - mallards, going into eclipse and jackdaws strutting their stuff around the pond.

But before I left, the Ring-necked Paras were being their noisy selves.
I think these, up in the Eucalyptus, were in competition with those in the
Apple tree. The ones on the feeders were a great deal quieter!

The three little ones are getting bigger..




Whilst some of the male mallards still seemed to have their
full summer plumage...


some of them are already going into eclipse



One of the many Jackdaws..