Tag Archives: bird

Dawlish Seafront

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The beginning of our holiday to Cornwall and Devon included a stop in Exeter for lunch and then, since we were so close to Dawlish, I decided to take a diversion down there. I had seen numerous pictures of Dawlish over the years with waves crashing against the wall and spray covering passing trains. Seemed a no-brainer to check it out – admittedly on a rather calmer day. We parked up along the seafront and took one of the footbridges over the tracks to the walkway along the shore. This whole area had a significant rebuild in recent years as a result of some storm damage. The tide was out and people were down walking on the beach.

I was a little surprised to find that, beyond the station, the fencing ended and there was quite a drop off the edge of the path down to the beach. I guess people just take care. I was trying to work out what some of the shapes of concrete were on the beach. At first, I thought they might be the remains of previous structures but, after looking at them further, I decided that they were sewer drainage pipes. If anyone knows differently, please let me know.

After walking for a while, we backtracked at went under the tracks at the station. Time to grab an ice cream because were were on holiday. Then we sat on a bench along the river as it comes into the shore. Apparently, Dawlish has an association with black swans and there were several down in the river. Not sure of the story on that one. It was only a brief stop, but it was nice to see this place for myself after all of these years.

Trying Not to Share Lunch with a Peacock

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We were out for a walk in some gardens one weekend. Having taken our lunch with us, we found a spot to sit and eat. It was an open sided barn structure with some benches under cover. Perfect for getting out of the sun on a hot day. Also, perfect if you are thinking that spare food might get dropped and that would be easier than foraging for food. At least that was the thinking of this peacock.

It was waiting when we got there and it certainly seemed very interested when we started opening bags to get out our lunch. While it did walk up close to see what was going on, it didn’t try pushing its luck to get our food from us. Thankfully, it also didn’t make any loud calls which, if you have been close to a peacock when it calls, you know can be quite startling. I’m afraid we didn’t spill anything that the peacock could have made use of. I’m not sure if hanging around really had the rate of return it was looking for but maybe others left more behind than us.

Swift Fledgling

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When the weather has been really hot at home, we have had windows open all over the house. I was out of the office having lunch with Nancy in the back of the house and I could hear a bird tweeting that sounded very close but didn’t really pay much attention to it. However, when I went back into my office after lunch, I saw a bird sitting on the window frame. At first, I stopped dead and called Nancy to have a look before it flew off if we startled it.

This was not a problem. The bird seemed totally uninterested in my presence. I am not a specialist on birds, but I think it was a swift and that it was recently fledged. Every once in a while, it would start tweeting which may well have been because the parents were nearby. Then it would go very quiet again. I took some photos and footage of it before returning to work. I figured it would fly off in due course.

This wasn’t the case. By the end of the workday, it was still sitting there. I did wonder at this point whether the open window meant parents couldn’t see where it was. Maybe staying there wasn’t going to be good for it and I would need to close the window at night. I decided to try moving it across the road to a fence post, so it was elevated but also visible. I got some gardening gloves to pick it up. At first, it seemed uninterested in moving but then suddenly it took off and flew across the road, over the fence and into the fields. Later in the evening, our neighbours saw it sitting on the spoke of the wheel of their vehicle. I guess it liked the warmth. However, we didn’t see it again. No idea whether it did okay or not.

Pelicans Overhead

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Scooting through some old images, I came across a shoot from a day at San Francisco International Airport. The shoreline at Millbrae provides a great view of operations but it also had quite a variety of wildlife that made the shoreline and the mudflats that it included home. We used to see a load of pelicans to although, for some reason, my later visits didn’t seem to include them. They would glide gracefully just above the water minimising their drag. However, on this occasion, they were a bit higher than usual. I imagine that the airport operations team at SFO are not keen on flocks of birds the size of pelicans in close proximity to airliners. Not sure whether this group had been cleared through the zone or not.

Black-Headed Gull Eying a Snack

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The morning after the birthday party that took us to Cowes, we went and got some bakery items for breakfast. (I won’t focus on the quality of the baking here, but they were a bit disappointing.) We took our purchases and walked along to Cowes Parade to sit and eat them while watching the world go by. A black-headed gull soon took an interest in us and came and perched close to us. It was lacking a foot, so its perching was slightly less straightforward. Gradually it would get braver and come closer to us. I decided it wanted to be on the blog so will oblige. (I don’t think it took any crumbs from our food so maybe it didn’t rate them either!)

More Duck Bums!

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I posted a shot of a duck up-ending while feeding and it seemed to amuse a few of you. Not long after that, I was running through the catalogue and got another shot that had a lot more then one duck up-ending with a formation of them. There was not way that wasn’t going to find its way on here at some point and here it is.

Virginia Rail in the Mud

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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.

Feeding the Birdies

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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).

Parakeets Are Noisy Little Sods

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It used to be that I thought parakeets were to be found in a park in London. They seem to have been quite effective at surviving and thriving in the UK and now they seem to crop up all over the place. I have seen them out near Heathrow and in Bushy Park. Richmond Park has had them for a long time, I think. They do provide a flash of colour in the south of England, but they are not a quiet bird. Their call is piercing, and they seem to be calling all of the time.

They are also fast fliers and getting shots of them while airborne has been a struggle for me. Since they are quite small, you need a long lens to get a decent image and picking them up with a long lens and then tracking – often against a busy backdrop – is very challenging. When they are in the trees I have had more success. Here are some shots that I have got of them in recent months. I will hopefully do a better job of catching them in flight before too long.