A few birds from a walk round the gardens of Hall Place, Bexley

This year I have visited Hall Place in Bexley a few times.  I enjoy walking round the grounds and, at the beginning of July, I photographed a small selection of birds.

This photograph of a baby Robin was taken from the bird hide next to the river Cray.  It is listening to the sound of my camera.

Nearby there was also an older Robin with a red breast and mottled face.

I came across a Yellow Wagtail that was standing on a twig overlooking the weir.

At the back of the grounds a Mistle Thrush was gathering snacks for the youngsters in the nest.

Back at the bird hide I came across an inquisitive male Chaffinch.

A Blue Tit landed on a diagonal branch on its way to a bird feeder.

Wildlife seen during a July walk round RSPB Rainham Marshes

I love visiting RSPB Rainham Marshes, near Purfleet, in Essex.  These photos are from a recent visit there.

Firstly a couple of large birds:

A Grey Heron was patrolling one of the lagoons

 A couple of Little Egrets were dancing at the edge of another lagoon

Now moving on to much smaller birds:

A very tiny Wren was singing tunefully at the edge of the boardwalk

 A female Linnet was hopping around in the bushes and I just managed to get her into a photo

A Goldfinch was not being very co-operative as a model and refused to turn round for me

I accidentally had more luck with this Sedge Warbler as it hopped to the front of the shrubbery

Lastly, not to forget the tiny creatures that live in the nature reserve, here is a Common Darter dragonfly perching on a dead twig

Birds and butterflies from recent walks in a London park and an RSPB nature reserve

During the last few months I have been for photographic walks in several different places.  Following are a few of the photographs of birds and butterflies that I took during a couple of those walks.

I saw a Grey Wagtail searching for snacks at the edge of the lake in London's St. James's Park

That day there was also a pair of Egyptian Geese swimming in the lake with their baby goslings.

Another trip out was to Rainham Marshes in Essex where I saw this beautiful Peacock butterfly on leaves and white blossom

Speckled Wood butterfly on a green leaf

White butterfly on dead reeds

There was a Jay sitting at the top of a tree in the woodland area

which flew off some minutes later

The pair of Great Crested Grebes started part of their courting dance with weeds on one of the lagoons

A Greenfinch and a Starling were sitting on twigs in the bushes near the visitor centre

Swallow and House Martin in Porthmadog, Wales

I have just spent a lovely week in Porthmadog, Wales, and now I know the difference between a Swallow and a House Martin as I managed to photograph both.

This beautiful Swallow, with a beak full of insects for its young, was perching on a metal railing at the edge of the estuary.  It was just below the balcony of the house where I was staying.

On another day, I went for a walk round the harbour and saw a House Martin on the wet sand.  It had a beak full of sand and was, presumably, gathering this in order to patch up its nest.

Stand-off between dad Black Swan and soon-to-be dad Mute Swan in St. James's Park

About a week ago I went to St. James's Park to see what was happening with a pair of Black Swans that had a single cygnet.  Last time I saw them, both male and female swans were with their cygnet on newly-turfed grass near the children's play area.  This time only the female swan was there.  She seemed a bit unsettled and lonely and she kept making little "peep, peep" sounds.  I think that she was missing her mate.

Eventually she took to the water, followed by the cygnet.

I followed them round the lake and could see, in the distance, an aggressive male Mute Swan heading towards the little island in the centre of the lake.

The female Black Swan had found her mate, but trouble was brewing and the family had to quickly get onto the little island.

The Mute Swan had ruffled feathers and was hissing at the Black Swans, which were by now hiding in the shrubbery with their cygnet.

I wandered a little further round the lake and saw that the male Mute Swan's mate was sitting on a nest not far away from where the Black Swans were hiding on the island.

The Mute Swan was still on the water and the Black Swan was bravely standing there in front of him.

They both stayed in position for some time - with the Mute Swan swimming off every so often and then very quickly returning for a stand-off with the Black Swan.  He retreated into the shrubbery, but very quickly returned for another face-off!

He must have got fed up with the situation as he then started walking round the edge of the island, drawing himself up to his full height in a very intimidating way.

Black Swans are much smaller than Mute Swans, so he made sure to stay on land so that he would appear to be much larger!

Eventually the Mute Swan gave up and swam off - giving the male Black Swan an opportunity to swim off.  The cygnet had appeared out of the bushes, but stayed at the edge of the island waiting for mum to appear.

She was obviously still very wary of the Mute Swan and it took her some time to tentatively come out of hiding.

Somehow she did not seem to know where her mate had gone and, stupidly, swam backwards and forwards in the water near the island.

Once again, the aggressive Mute Swan was heading in her direction!

So mum and baby once again had to climb onto the island and hide in the shrubbery!

I could not stay any longer to see how long it would be before she managed to escape again and headed off in the direction I had come.  Sure enough, the male Black Swan was standing on the newly-turfed area where I had first seen the family.  I hope he went back to the little island and rescued his mate and their cygnet!

Tawny owl and owlet in the park

Last week I read that there was a female Tawny Owl with two Owlets in St. James's Park, which is not all that far from where I live.  My camera and I went out searching for them last Friday, but to no avail.  However, I did get chatting to someone who was also looking for them and, after I had gone home, he found them and kindly let me know where to look.

The next day it was very overcast, but I was determined to once again search for the owl family - and I found them.  Sadly, one of the Owlets had not made it and what was left of it's body was lying on the ground near the tree.  Mum Owl and the surviving youngster were perching high up in the branches, almost at the top of a 60ft plane tree.  Once I had noticed them, they were quite obvious because, as it is early on in the year, there were no leaves on the tree.  However, they were very difficult to photograph because of their position on the tree and due to the fact that most of the time they had their backs to me.  After some time both mum and baby turned round.

I went to the park again the next day when the weather was much better - so managed to take a photograph of the female Tawny Owl with the background of a very blue sky.

Unfortunately, the Owlet refused to get into a good position - keeping it's back towards me, hiding in the branches and being mostly covered with big round seed heads.  Mum was still posing nicely.

This is a photograph of the plane tree with the adult and young Tawnies perching on branches towards the right-hand side at the very top of the tree.  You definitely would not know that they were there unless you were looking for them - very sensible!

Thank goodness I have a camera with a zoom lens!!

Birds spotted during January stroll in St. James's Park

On a sunny day towards the end of January my camera and I went for a birding walk in London's St. James's Park.

There we saw:

A Great Tit framed inside a network of twigs

A green Rose-ringed Parakeet with an injury to it's underside

 A Cormorant drying it's wings on the bank of the lake

A Robin perching on the curved top of a railing

A female Blackbird disguising herself amongst the fallen leaves

Two Black Swans looking very cute in the hope that they will be served some lunch by tourists

A shaggy-headed Cormorant

The Cormorant was looking very haughty

A Black Swan showing off it's white under-feathers

A sun-bathing Red-Crested Pochard

A Black Swan with very frilly feathers

The naughty Black Swan was chasing after the Mute Swan cygnets

A scavenging white Ross's Goose

A family group of Ross's geese

A Little Grebe reflected in the lake

Two Bar-headed Geese marching round the lake

Three Pelicans shivering while standing in a row in the shade

Three hungry Pelicans swimming in a row

A Pelican with a fish in it's pouch - the park steward had just thrown fish to the Pelicans

A contented Pelican flashing it's wings in the sunshine

The three Pelicans moved into the sun to warm up

A Red-breasted Goose

Three Red-breasted Geese in a row