Frogs and hybrids!

(Hint: When you reach the Mallard hybrid pics, the lovely markings are more evident if you click on the picture to enlarge it..)

It's been one of those weeks when I've not really been able to get any pictures that I'm really pleased with. The light's not been that bad and we've had a bit of sun. However, when I popped over to Painshill the other day the sun was being very shy.

Most of the birds were in hiding; they can be so elusive now the trees are in flower. One of the pairs of Great Crested Grebes were still together but I couldn't find their nest. The one they were on recently has, I've learned from fellow birder Ian, been predated. Hey ho!

The Marsh Frogs alerted me to their presence by being incredibly noisy - as is their wont!!

One minute sitting there quietly and..

the next, filling their vocal sacs being very noisy

then to subside and lie quietly again.

Across the bridge and a Great Tit had been bathing in a puddle before sitting on a branch for a bit of a brush up.

A flotilla of Mallard Ducklings. The are quite a mixture as Mum is a Hybrid.

and a very pretty one she is too.

A couple of Greylag Geese Goslings deciding whether or not to leap out into the water

which they did and joined their siblings and a parent.

Further around the lake the other Mallard Hybrid had only two ducklings. But this one I saw last year and she had four initially.

She's got some lovely colouring..

And on my way out, more Greylag Geese Goslings contemplating the distance down to the water

and en famille they swam off - Mum and Dad looking rather snooty though ;)

In the alpine valley I caught my first Green-veined white flutter of the year.

And that was it for the day. Nothing very special. I'm hoping for damsels and dragons before too long. There's usually plenty of them at Painshill.