My blog is mostly about wildlife, particularly birds, walking, days out, all growing things and anything else that comes to mind.
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Wednesday 4 November 2009

A slow start to the day...

Yesterday evening I started to feel rather unwell and this continued into this morning. It was with regret that I had to turn down an offer of some local birding, but hey ho.

A Nuthatch visited my garden again this morning. It's not visited regularly over such a long period before so I'm hoping s/he's going to stay around a bit longer.

I finally started to feel better and needed a trip to the supermarket. When I got back around lunchtime, this Sparrowhawk was sitting in the apple tree - where the feeders are! From the size I think it's a female but I didn't get a better pose than this. It sat there for quite sometime so hopefully, it hadn't been hunting but just resting.

I needed some exercise and fresh air, so after a quick sandwhich (think I was getting back to normal) I headed off for Bushy Park. It was sunny when I left but got more cloudy and dull as I wandered around.

Three of the seven cygnets were still very visible and they're getting more white colouring now. I don't know if the others have left but I didn't see any more.

In the Autumn and Winter the Black-Headed Gulls are very numerous and today, two were having quite an aggressive fight.



Finally one left and the other settled down on the pond again.

An Egyptian Goose was having a preen on one of the sheltered streams; this made for a good reflection.

Walking under the line of Chestnut Trees I heard the familiar "rattly" sound of a Mistle Thrush. He flew high up into the top branches of a tree but managed to get a passing shot. He eventually flew off without coming any closer. It's a spot that they seem to favour, so with the leaves now coming off the trees hopefully there will be some better sights as the Autumn progresses.


I got back to the car as the rain started and headed off home for a cuppa!

8 comments:

Warren Baker said...

I hope you don't get the same trouble from that sprawk that I have with mine. :-)

holdingmoments said...

Hope you get back to full recovery soon Tricia. Nothing worse, especially this time of year.

Lovely shot of the Sparrowhawk in the tree.
Those gulls seem as bad as the Coots at times for fighting. Great action captures.

Chris said...

Hi Tricia,
I hope you are felling better by now and that you are gonna do ok....
I love the sparrow hawk picture, but I'm very happy too to get news from the cygnets! They should be quite big by then....
This is a beautiful post even if we can feel that winter is over your area too!

Anonymous said...

Hope your OK now Tricia, I guess you must be getting better as you didn't pass up on a sandwich.{:)

Yoke, said...

I guess you felt a whole lot better after the stroll, didn't you?

Great shot of the Sprawk! Never seen one in this neck of the woods.

Love the BHGs, and how you captured their ink fingers of the wings.

great post, Tricia.

oldcrow61 said...

The hawk is such a handsome looking bird. Great pictures of the gulls fighting.

ShySongbird said...

Sorry to read you have not been feeling too well Tricia, I don't think this time of year helps at all!

I am very envious of your Nuthatch, that and a Woodpecker would cheer me considerably ;)

i love the BH gull photos, I have noticed they really are a quarrelsome lot though!

Tricia Ryder said...

Playing catch up again. So my apologies for the delay..

Warren - sometimes I do :(

Keith - back on track now thanks. Gulls really do squabble!

Chris - much better thank you. Four of the 7 cygnets I think have left now.

Roy - yes if I'm eating I'm usually improving!

Yoke - thank you :D

OC - The hawk's are wonderful birds with their big eyes!

Jan - I think this time of the year account for a great deal of "unwellness"

And I agree about the gulls being quarrelsome!

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