When I used to spend time at Juanita Bay Park, those who knew their birds properly used to be quite excited by the rails that they saw there. A Virginia rail was one of the ones that someone pointed out to me. I liked the way the face got coated in mud as it was probing the shoreline for food. At one point, one was walking around in the shade and then its head came out into the light that was coming through a small gap in the vegetation. I loved the look for that brief moment.
While walking on my regular route around the nature reserve, I saw a hoodie that someone had left on the fence. I imagined that there was a chance that they would come back this way and find it and was going to move on but then I saw a shape on the fabric which enticed me to look closer. This spider had taken up residence on the hoodie and seemed quite at home in the sun. I don’t know spider species so have no idea what this is, but it looked rather fascinating.
Windsor Great Park has a lot of red kites. As we walked along one path, it seemed like there were more of them than we could count. The breeze along the ridge made it easy for them as they swooped back and forth looking for food. Mum and Nancy pointed me at a tree along the path. On the branch, one of the kites had landed and was surveying the scene. Something about it seemed odd as I took the shot, but it was only when I got home and looked at the images that I realised that it seems to have a rather wonky beak. I’ve no idea whether this makes life tricky or not but seemed healthy enough.
During a walk through Windsor Great Park, we were about to turn onto a new path when we noticed a few people stopped a short distance away. If there are a few people all doing nothing and looking in one direction, there is a good chance there is something interesting that they are looking at. Sure enough, there was a kestrel sitting on the fence. Whenever I see something like this, I figure there is a chance that it is going to get spooked and fly off so grab a quick shot before it is too late.
However, this bird didn’t seem in the least bit bothered. It was well aware of the small crowd that it had attracted but no one was getting close, so it seemed content to just sit there. I walked in a new direction to try and get a better angle on it – still convinced that it would scoot but no. It happily stayed there while I got a different look at it. Having achieved that, it was time to continue with our walk but, as I looked back, it was still sitting there. Maybe it had just eaten and was now digesting lunch?
It had been a while since I had last taken a walk around Barton Meadows and, with all of the things I had needed to do on a Sunday done, I didn’t want to just doze off on what was a lovely day. I thought a couple of miles around the nature reserve would be a good finish to the afternoon. I wasn’t going to go without the camera, though. There was some wildlife to be seen but most things were a bit distant. The cattle were in the field though. Some of them were up at the gate at the top of one of the fields and using it to scratch themselves. I find this very amusing for some reason so switched to video to capture them looking like they were really enjoying themselves. Not quite Baloo in Jungle Book but similar!
While out on a walk, we saw a load of sheep in a field. One of them was wearing a blue jacket. I am used to seeing people with coats on their pets, but I had never seen a sheep with an added coat. Wool usually does a pretty good job. It was slightly away from the other sheep, and I couldn’t help but decide it was a bit embarrassed by its attire!
Walking through the village of Longstock, we looked across a yard and saw a family of piglets with a sow feeding on the other side. It seemed that the fence they were near was actually for a park, so we walked around the edge to the park entrance and backtracked to see if the piggies were still close in. Sure enough, there they were. Much feeding was underway, but the piglets were also jumping around and messing with each other as kids are prone to do. At one point, one of them upset another and it let out such a squeal that we were both startled by the noise. It was something else.
They were definitely cute looking little creatures. After briefly being interested by our arrival, they rapidly lost interest and were back to eating and bugging each other. Just the occasional look up to see what is going on. We left them to it and continued our walk.
At the end of a walk we took in the New Forest, we were almost back at the car when we saw a gate with a load of little birds on it. At first, I didn’t understand why but then it became apparent that someone had left a load of seed on the gate for them. Then a lady walked up and told me that she was the one responsible for the food. It was very effective!
There was a wide variety of birds including blue tits, coal tits, great tits, finches and nuthatches gorging on the goodies. This meant getting shots was relatively easy. Small birds don’t hang around long in any one spot – they are pretty twitchy (see what I did there?). Consequently, getting photos can be tricky. However, when you know where they are going to be it makes getting shots a lot easier. I even got some of arrivals and landings. However, these were not well focused or with fast enough shutter speeds to be worth sharing but that is something I can fix another time.
Little birds are really interesting when you get close to them. They have colouration that is worth checking out and adopt poses that make them look like they are curious about what is around them. I spent a fair bit of time getting pictures, but it was still a cold winter morning, and Nancy was beginning to lose enthusiasm, so I headed off. Now I know what food they like, I might have to look out for good lighting conditions and go back with more of a photographic focus (no pun intended).
Randomly came across this photo recently and it made me smile so here it is for you. Maybe it will make you smile too. A feeding duck will often up-end like this. Nothing unusual. Just something silly for a morning.
Late one Sunday afternoon, I was walking across Chilbolton Cow Common. I had been out looking for something a little rare in the area without success. As I headed back towards Chilbolton itself, I saw a red kite circling above a tree. The tree was full of birds, and I wondered whether the kite was hassling some of the other birds. However, I was quite wrong. The tree was actually full of kites. Red kites are very common in our area, and you can see them circling in close proximity to each other. I didn’t realise that they would like to roost in a tree together though. I guess they are pretty sociable birds!