Little Owl

The Little Owl (Athene noctua)

This is one of the resident Little Owls that frequent a large tree in the Parkland where I walks sometimes. 

It is usually perched amongst the high branches of the tree and is never easy to find. 

Small Tortoiseshell

Walking out in what I considered to be too cold for any early butterflies yesterday (air temperature 11 celsius) I was surprised to see two Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) feeding on dandelion flowers. Not a colonising species the Small Tortoiseshell flies freely across the countryside and can be found in a number of habitats. 

These I photographed have emerged from hibernation and although it was cold, there was the odd showing of the sun through thick haze. I couldn't get a very good angle on these two as I was shooting through the small portal of a bird hide on to flowers in front of the hide.

This is the second batch of this species I have seen so far this Spring, which is very encouraging as the year before last the population was decimated due to the poor weather conditions and I only observed a few throughout last year.

Mr Greedy

Confused as a Newt….

…..or should that be a Frog or a Toad.

I dont profess to be an expert in any field of Nature, I just enjoy observing and photographing it.

I have come to observing Nature later in life and through researching about what I photograph, consequently I do learn something about most things. 

I also learn a lot from others who are experts or have far more knowledge on such subjects in their fields than I.

On Wednesday 19th of March I posted about finding what I believed after research, were a few Common Toads in a pond which is located in a local woodland nature reserve. See: 

http://roysnaturelogbook.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/croak-croak.html

The book says that Toads are rough warty skinned amphibians, whereas Frogs are smooth skinned.

The book also says that Frog Spawn comes in big lumps and Toad spawn is single stringed and wraps around submerged plant stalks.

I returned to that pond today only to find what appeared to be Frog Spawn with quite a few of the same amphibians swimming around the spawn and generally doing what nature intended.

Google search result of Common Frog images

Common Frog

Google search result of Common Toad images

Common Toad

I'm still confused as a Newt.

A Squirrels Lot

Grey Squirrels are active most of the year, when they are not eating peanuts left out for them of course.{:)) They breed twice yearly, December to February and May to June. They produce up to six in a litter and the young leave the nest after about 10 weeks.

They are a Herbivore and eat nuts, plants, seeds, berries, buds and shoots. They will take eggs and small rodents if food is really scarce.

This one below is eating peanuts left out for it.

This ones lunch consisted of a few tasty Ash Tree buds.

Then a spot of grooming.

Then taking in a the Sun.

Great Tit

The Great Tit (Parus major)

The largest of our Tit species. 

Lumix GH3. 100-300mm lens. 150mm. 1/320 at f5.6. ISO 800

Spring Farming

A familiar sight now is Black-headed Gulls following the plough or the rotovator.  

Farming is a difficult business to get right and there are many guidelines and regulations to follow.

There are Codes of Practice in existence for spraying pesticides etc on farmland. That said, they are only codes of practice and nothing is mandatory. I watched this spraying activity below from the safety of a car. The fairly high winds and sudden gusts at the time was blowing the spray across the fields and over public roads. There seems little point in having codes of practice, if contractors that carryout this work fail to stick to them and what is important to the Farmer paying for it is that half the spray is blown away and not on the crops.

From The Window

The latest post in my series of 'From The Window'.

As the tree outside of the lounge window is in full flower now, I thought it would be a good opportunity to shoot some birds amongst the blossom. Although its never a great idea to shoot through double glazing, which usually means a lot of post shooting work with software to make a reasonable finished product. 

Goldfinch

Greenfinch (♂)

Chaffinch (♂)

Woodpigeon

Coal Tit

Chaffinch (♀)

Collard Dove

House Sparrow (♂)

Robin

Greenfinch (♀)