A walk around the park this morning brought a few surprises: the 14 goslings we had seen earlier in the week had all gone, presumably predated, and a grey heron, which we have not seen for a while, was back (presumably from the heronry to which they disappear at this time of the year).
We saw our first mute swan cygnets on our Sunday morning walk around Eastville Park. There were goslings, ducklings and moorhen and coot chicks everywhere. However, our walk was really enlivened by the late appearance of a kingfisher which announced itself very noisily (as they do) so that we couldn’t miss it.
Whilst there were parades across the UK today to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day these newcomers to the park (Canada Geese goslings) were making their contribution.
It was also pleasing to see a grey wagtail on the weir as we haven’t seen one in the park for a while.
Early morning walk in the park. Much fresher this morning after yesterday’s highs of 27° C. Quite amazing weather for this time of the year.
Lovely bright colours in the park this morning on our morning stroll with our first peacock butterfly of the season and the (very) common kingfisher..
There wasn’t much about in the park today, but who’s complaining?
And who says that birds in the UK are only LBJs (little brown jobs)?
It’s definitely a good time of the year to see kingfishers and robins in our local park. This morning the sun shone brightly but it was still very cold. No reason to complain though with these bright little birds to lift your spirits, as they always do.
And then its was Sunday brunch time.
We had an enjoyable gentle Sunday morning stroll around our local park in the sunshine chatting to new and old acquaintances.
We were well rewarded with a fleeting visit of a male kingfisher who stayed only long enough for me to take 3 frames (although everyone told us that the male and female had been around for ages. I also missed a treecreeper that everyone else seemed to have seen.
I think robins are about my spotting ability and there were plenty of those to choose from.
Around the lake there were lots of cormorants. The mind boggles to think that they eat 30 times their body weight of fish in a day. That doesn’t bode well for the fish in the lake, although there always seem to be plenty there.
There were the first glimpses of the sun for over a week as we started our walk around the park this morning. However, it was only a teaser and it didn’t last long. We are promised better tomorrow.
No sun maybe, but there were flashes of brightness throughout our walk as we had several sightings of the magnificent kingfisher. Firstly, we saw one flying along the River Frome west to east, and then two together flying from east to west. Then closer to the park there was one perching and posing.
There was a newcomer to the lake as a northern shoveler seems to have taken up residence.
However there are always plenty of gulls resident and today we saw lesser black-backed and black-headed.
There always seem to be plenty of cormorants at the lake. The fish stocks must be pretty low by now.
Other birds were available …
It was a very dull morning but I managed to find plenty of colourful things to photograph in our local park this morning. The kingfisher and tawny owl were the stars but coots, moorhens and a grey heron all had their place. None of them seemed too bothered by the park runners.
The avenue of trees were pretty colourful too.
But this is definitely an urban environment.
Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos 