A Search for Birds

As I have said before recently, birds are not easy to find at the moment. They are still hiding away in the thick bushes and trees around the area I normally walk. I made an effort to search for some this morning and came up with just a few.

This Whitethroat only stopped momentarily in the open while it was in transit from one lot of thick bush to the next. If its a clear night tonight it will probably get airborne for the South coast on its migratory route.

This female Blackcap below was playing hide and seek with me, but eventually I got a couple of partial shots.

This Woodie below wasn't particularly bothered if I found it or not.,

One bird that was not hiding away - The Grey Heron.

When searching through the thick tree branches you may find more than you bargained for.

Another Brood

Looking out of the lounge window I noticed this Woodpigeon landing on the balcony rail. It had a twig in its beak and it then disappeared into the adjacent tree. This being August this was probably its third attempt at building a nest and rearing a brood. 

Woodpigeons start breeding in April and will often produce three broods in the year. If the nest is predated or damaged then they will lay up to six times in the season to produce a brood.

At various times over two days I observed both birds coming and going with twigs and entering the tree. So this certainly required a few photographs, but shooting through double glazing is never a very successful idea. If you are shoot at any direction other than at right angles then you will get a ghosting blur. Even if you can shoot straight on the clarity is not that good and requires some post processing.

Single Image Post

I posted this single image of a female Common Blue butterfly as I particularly liked the "Bokeh' consisting of dark streaks of grasses in the background.

Common Blue Again

I thought I would share another batch of Common Blue images.

The main reason being this male below, which a Birding colleague drew my attention to the other day. It was quite large for a Common Blue and a second brood individual, the size of which you can't really appreciate from these images.

This female below was also quite size for the species.

Single Image Post

A female Green-veined White butterfly is the subject for this single image post.

Where are the Birds

 This is the time of year when birds are not that visible.
They are still rearing young and also the foliage makes it more difficult to find them.
So on this walk I didn't have much luck finding them.

This House Sparrow did put in a partial appearance.

This male Blackcap was too busy eating Elderberries to pose.

This Blackbird had taken a bath and was adopting those strange positions to dry out in the sunshine. 

The Greylag just didn't want to hang around.

The female Mallard was still asleep.

The Mute Swan was busy driving off interlopers to his territory.

The Black-headed Gull was taking in the sun.

Beef Cattle were easy to find, some of which were stood under the trees sheltering from the sun and avoiding the flies. 

Fish. Just looking over the bridge and there they were.

Here are a few scenes from the walk.

This thistle flower was popular.

In attendance was a Brown Argus, a Gatekeeper and some kind of fly? 

Of course there are many butterflies now that have seen better days, like this female Large White.

A pair of Small White still had the right idea.

Note the brown grass, which is a typical scene at the moment after all the dry hot weather.