My blog is mostly about wildlife, particularly birds, walking, days out, all growing things and anything else that comes to mind.
To view pictures in larger format, just click on any picture for the picture gallery....

Tuesday 21 October 2008

A few birdies...

An indication of winter's approach was noting the (now) 9 Goldfinches at the feeders in the garden this morning. They were kept company, off and on, by a Nuthatch, a couple of Blue Tits, Great Tits, 5 Greenfinches, 9 Ring-necked Parakeets, 5 Wood Pigeons (eating all the Holly berries - please leave some for the Redwings!), a Jay and a couple of Chaffinches.

As the sun decided to shine today, I had a quick trip over to Barnes (WWT London Wetland Centre) this afternoon. Several Lapwings around, some Gadwall, Teal, Mute Swans, Egyptian and Canada Geese, Coots, Moorhens, Heron, Cormorants, Little Grebes, and several Shoveler. Unfortunately, most of the birds were at the furthest point away so couldn't get many pics.

These two Little Grebes would not turn to face the camera

and this Mute Cygnet wouldn't move for me to get a shot without grass!

Collection birds I know, but this Eider was one of a few, and posed nicely


White faced Whistling Ducks were also on the move



and I think this is a female Ringed Teal

But the STARS of the show today, were the much underrated
Mrs. Mallard, having stretch....



and Mr. Mallard who'd just had a dip in the water.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Mallard stole the show for me!

A pleasant couple of impromptu hours.

6 comments:

Goosey said...

I see you have the ring necked parakeets, do they scare off the other birds? We don't have them here yet but I know there are some not far away at Studland now and I do worry a bit that they would chase everything else off. You seem to have a good selection of birds despite them...so maybe not.

Tricia Ryder said...

Goosey - no, the Paras are not aggressive to other birds at all; the goldfinches, for example, will quite happily share the feeders with them.

The biggest concern (in the building world) is that the Paras are taking over the nesting sites of our indigenous species, such as the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The jury's still out on that one though.

oldcrow61 said...

Beautiful pictures once again.

Tricia Ryder said...

Thanks OC..

Anonymous said...

Hi Just come across your blog, I have included it as a link from my blog. Great photographs and a very interesting blog, places mentioned I know quite well. Jackie.
http://jackieslifeinsurrey-1.blogspot.com/

Tricia Ryder said...

Hi Jackie, thanks, and nice to see you here.

I see you used to live not far from me when you were in Kingston! and not that too far now.

Thanks for the link - I'll be popping over to you in due course.

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