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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Showing posts with label Lizards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lizards. Show all posts

Sunday, 1 April 2012

Fighting Little Grebes

I went back upto the London Wetland Centre today; not much about but an abundance of Little Grebes - some of which were having quite viscous fights.  Needless to say I wasn't ready for the fast movement but...




There were many Little Grebes in the reserve today...


it was there a minute ago!!

Upended Gadwalls..


many Little Grebes were fighting - 4 of the at one time!!  Some of the pics not that good but the speed at which they whizzed across the water was incredible..










and with Panasonic G3 with 45mm lens









and around my garden

The wisteria starting to be in leaf; no idea what colour it's going to be though... just hope the frost and anticipated snow later this week doesn't kill off the new growth!!


Sunday, 8 May 2011

LWC/Barnes... and all is quiet

Popped over to Barnes on Saturday. Very few people about which from a birding point of view was great. Bumped into some folk that I know which was nice. But it was very quiet for birds. Think we may have seen the Hobby in the distance but other than that.... quiet!!

Three of us stood and watched a pair (at least) of Reed Warblers darting about in and out of the reeds - nest building.

One perched still for a few minutes which enabled a very quick shot!


It had rained in the morning and by now it was warm and humid... even the Mallards just wanted to be lazy on a Sunday.

Wonderful structure of seed head of (I think) the Snakeshead fritillaries which have now gone over.

And the wonderful blue of the Irisis (and they're just going over too)



Came across this pair of Lizards.. hard to believe the difference in size.
The one on the left seems to have an unusally long tail whereas the other seems to have lost some it its!!



It was rather nice to have it quiet as far as humans were concerned. Think everyone was avoiding it because of the earlier rain!

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Barnes - it was the Easter hols......

I popped over to London Wetland Centre on Tuesday just to see what was about. Not a lot! Unless you count several "young people" on Easter holidays.... !

A grey heron managed to look down in the dumps. The weather was changing for the worse and his pose seemed to reflect that.

Watching two Great Crested Grebes I noticed that one of them, on a couple of occasions, stood up in the shallow water and, to all intents and purposes, seemed to be gazing into the water. Never seen this before.

A female Mallard had a preen.

And heard my first Reed Warbler deep in the reeds. It was not far from the nest which posed a question for me.. was it this or last year's nest? It look in far too pristine a condition to have survived the winter, but surely the warblers couldn't have been here long enough to build (what looks to be) a complete nest?

Marsh Frogs announced their presence very vocally.

And this one seems to be grimacing.. not sure if it had suffered some damage to its "lip" line.

And in the early (ish) morning sun, a common lizard was sunning itself before starting its activites of the day.

Just a quick visit and heard so many Cetti's and Blackcaps that it was frustrating not to gain a glimpse of them. Saw my first Speckled Wood - in fact two of them..

Hopefully more another visit.

Sunday, 17 October 2010

Where are the migrants?

Well the weather today has been glorious - mostly sunshine which was very warm - lovely!

I've been over to the London Wetland Centre... but there's not much about in terms of new migrants yet. A Bittern has been reported but as yet, I've not seen it... hopefully over the next few weeks...

At least 4 Snipe were seen in the same spot...in addition to the regular visitors Grey Herons, Cormorants, loads of Teal, Lapwings etc. etc.
and many Teal

Several Shovellers..

but the female Kestrel didn't disappoint and come over to her usual hunting spot

Just got the above shot before she flew off... and I just caught her..

Further around a (young I think) Lizard had been basking in the sun.

And such a cheery flower - the Sunflower that sang out as headed off for home!

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