ShareMondays2020 – Happy To See You!

ShareMondays2020 – Happy To See You!

I had an appointment at Guy’s Hospital last Friday and decided to drive as I’m in the at-risk category with regards to coronavirus. It was a morning appointment, so I decided to make the most of being up that way with the car and pay a visit to the wonderful WWT London Wetlands Centre at Barnes. It’s completely wheelchair accessible, including the various hides!

A fellow SheClicks member, Oddy, had tipped me off to the emergence of one of my favourite native British animals, the common or Viviparous lizard. These wonderful creatures love basking on sun-warmed wood and were coming out onto the sides of the bird hides to warm themselves. This is the earliest in the year that I have seen them!

Although I am following advice to socially distance myself, I am still meeting with friends and family in outdoor spaces. Going to Barnes enabled me to meet up with fellow nature and wildlife photographer, Andrew Wilson. Andrew has published a series of fabulous books, with his own photography, celebrating Wild London! It’s great getting out with other photographers who share the same passions for our wonderful wildlife.

I was absolutely thrilled to find one little lizard basking on the side of the WWF Hide! They are such great little characters. I managed to catch it scenting with it’s tongue and giving me the eye with that classic, smug looking smile. This individual was only about 6cm in length so probably a youngster from last year! They really are an absolute treat to see. I hope everyone is holding up ok in these troubled times. Stay as safe as you can and look out for anyone you know who is vulnerable and at risk.

ShareMondays2020 – Some Bunny To Love

ShareMondays2020 – Some Bunny To Love

For Nikki, Quinn and James xxx

ShareMondays2020 – FEED ME!

ShareMondays2020 – FEED ME!

Friday before last, I had to go to the Central Middlesex Hospital, near Wembley, for a small bowel MRI to check on the adhesions in my gut. Adhesions are often a consequence of abdominal surgery and I’ve had quite a number of operations for my Crohn’s. Anyway, I had to hang around at the hospital for a while after the scan, to wait for the mannitol solution to pass, so I went to the cafe by the entrance. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw a pair of song thrush busily taking food to a nest in a small tree outside the front entrance of the hospital. Surely it’s far too early for nesting!

I had come out without any cameras and I was soon cursing myself for it. Heading outside for a closer look, people were wandering around in the area but the birds were ignoring them. I stood there watching the adults bringing in several meals of worms to two very hungry nestlings. Song thrush do start to nest earlier than some other birds, usually having two or three broods during the season, which normally runs from March to August. Nesting is triggered by the weather and we have been having a very mild winter! I managed to capture a few images with my phone as a record, a couple are heavily zoomed as I didn’t want to disturb the birds.

Storm Dennis arrived at the weekend and the weather was truly appalling all week. I couldn’t return to the site with my camera until last Friday. I feared that the weather could have spelled disaster for the nest! When I arrived the nest was empty, but I could hear the thrush making chatting noises in the garden area alongside the hospital. I approached cautiously and hid at the corner of the wall to search the gardens. It was delightful to spot the two fledgings close by, hunkered down in the grass, calling for the adults to feed them. Eventually, the adults managed to coax both fledgings to take a haltering flight into the safety of the hedgerow.

ShareMondays2020 – Winter Warmer

ShareMondays2020 – Winter Warmer

Finding myself vitamin D deficient once again I am trying to get out into the sunshine as much as possible! I spent an afternoon at Bushy Park last week, soaking up those precious rays and watching the wildlife. It was so mild I ended up shedding my big winter coat. It was fun watching the deer and wrens in the bracken near Heron Pond, before heading over to the Woodland Gardens for sunset and a cuppa at the cafe.

Signs of an early Spring were very evident in the Woodland Gardens! Watching the parakeets feasting on cherry blossom is a sight I don’t usually see for another two months! Just as the sun was setting at around half four, I came across one of the resident rabbits. I was really surprised to see one out of the warren at this time of day and year! The rabbits here are more used to people walking by and I was able to get really close to it, capturing the details of the fur and even a reflection of the sunset in the rabbit’s eye. The leaf litter in the background glowed in the late light and this little rabbit just stole my heart!

ShareMondays2020 – Open Wide!

ShareMondays2020 – Open Wide!

My fascination with the pelicans in St James’s Park continues! I managed a short visit on Friday afternoon after an appointment at Guy’s Hospital. It’s so therapeutic after you’ve just had to hear more bad news. I was expecting it really, no big shocks but disappointing all the same. So from having to keep my own mouth wide open for the dental conservative consultant, I went to see a much more impressive wide mouth!

The bare skin on the lower mandible of the pelican is known as the gular pouch. There are other birds with gular skin but the pelican has the largest. The lower mandible expands to open the pouch allowing it to scoop it’s prey from the water. As the mandible contracts, water is expelled from the bill and the bird can then tilt its head to let the fish slide down the gullet. The gular pouch actually has a larger capacity than the pelicans stomach! You may have heard the rhyme by Dixon Merritt: “Oh, what a wondrous bird is the pelican! His bill holds more than his belican. He can take in his beak enough food for a week. But I’m darned if I know how the helican.” In fact, any surplass food is actually stored in the oesophagus!

ShareMondays2019 – What’s The Difference Between A Weasel And A Stoat?

ShareMondays2019 – What’s The Difference Between A Weasel And A Stoat?

A weasel is weaselly recognised but a stoat is stoatally different! Boom Boom!

Sorry, but I couldn’t resist a bad Christmas cracker joke. This is the first WILD weasel I have ever managed to catch on camera! What a way to celebrate the festive season. I know it’s a weasel, not for the aforementioned reason, but because it’s REALLY small and the tail is only about 3cm long, with no black bushy tip! I only actually caught very brief glimpses of the tail as they’re also REALLY, REALLY fast. My photos with the full body and tail are unintentionally motion blurred!

Anyway, wishing everyone a fun and joyful festive season, whatever and however you might celebrate! Here are the festive feathered friends that I went to photograph, who actually alerted me to the presence of the Wisley Weasel. A redwing in a cherry tree and rockin’ robin!

ShareMondays2019 – Winter Tree Decorations

ShareMondays2019 – Winter Tree Decorations

I managed to get out of the house last Thursday to visit some of my favourite tree decorations, at RHS Wisley Gardens, fieldfares and redwings! These two birds are members of the Thrush family that fly south from Scandinavia, to overwinter in the UK and other parts of southern Europe. They won’t take long to strip the cherry trees bare of these sweet treats! It’s a spectacle I love seeing every year. They are so busy feeding that I can get just a little bit closer to them than in some other areas where they are gathered.

ShareMondays2019 – Gold Dust

 

ShareMondays2019 – Gold Dust

Inspired by the Autumn golds at RHS Wisley Gardens last week. I will let the images speak for themselves today!

ShareMondays2019 – Vogue

ShareMondays2019 – Vogue

Another appointment in London led to another visit to St James’s Park last week. My lead image is a macro of one of the new pelicans. The three are just ten months old and have yet to develop their punk-like crests, but they have such beautiful shaping to the feathers on the back of their heads. They all still have some of their juvenile plumage on their wings, a brown colour, which easily distinguishes them from the three adults.

Of course the pelicans aren’t the only birds in the park! I had great fun watching juvenile coots munching on mushrooms around the edge of the lake. Anyone foraging for fungi in the Royal Parks should seek permission first! Not all fungi are suitable for human consumption, but many are an important source of food for hungry wildlife.

Lots of visitors to the park feed the birds and squirrels with peanuts. This is actually a great food for them at the moment as they contain plenty of calories to keep their energy reserves going in the colder weather. The parakeets love being fed! They’ll come and sit on your hand (head, arm or shoulder too!) to eat nuts or fruit. The smaller birds like the robins, tits and dunnocks will happily come to take bird seed from you too.

 

ShareMondays2019 – Golden Days

ShareMondays2019 – Golden Days

Despite all the wet weather we’ve had this month, some days are just golden! I visited St James’s Park in London last Wednesday and discovered that the flock of pelicans has doubled in size. There are now six of these magnificent birds living in the park. They were glorious to watch in the Autumn light with the rich colours of foliage on Duck Island behind them. It was lovely to see lots of people enjoying the space, feeding birds and squirrels, warming up in the cafe, having a family outing with the kids or just sitting under a tree, getting lost in a good book.