Heading out on a dull dark Monday morning to Rising sun country park, I thought I would be unable to get any pictures due to the lighting, but Brian and I walked through the woodlands of the park towards the heap hoping to see the Ring Ouzel although we were both not excepting to see it.
Walking up the hill Skylarks sung as the flew around and a few Reed buntings sat in the bushes, no Ring Ouzel but lots of Corvids, Walking back to the visitors centre we spotted a Sparrowhawk soaring above the pond, after a cup of tea we had a look around the farm with only Blue tits and Robin to be found.
A look at the pond found lots of the usual "suspects" as well as a Heron and a single little Grebe, we had a close encounter with the Red Stag earlier on in the day but as we walked past and photographed a pair of Blackcap we got a very close encounter with this very impressive best, I managed to get a lot of photographs of him that I am very happy with but I can't put all of them on! A Song thrush then showed up and let us photograph him, the sounds of seemingly "hundreds" of chiffchaff s filled the air and I still find it a very nice song and if anything easy to identify,
I've also added a few pictures I took in the first week of the Chiffchaffs return to Killy and some of a quick trip to Tynemouth pier which brought Rock pipit, 2 Purple Sandpiper, many Fulmars and Kittiewakes and a very brief glimpse of the Black Redstart.
 |
| Singing Skylark |
 |
| Skylark |
 |
| Mr.Stag |
 |
| Red Stag |
 |
| Red Stag |
 |
| According to some passers by he is a reindeer |
 |
| Blackcap |
 |
| Dunnock |
 |
| Close-up |
 |
| Song thrush |
 |
| Still hard to believe he is wild |
 |
| Chiffchaff |
 |
| Chiffchaff taken a few weeks ago |
 |
| Mrs. Grebe |
 |
| Singing dunnock (Back garden) |
 |
| Rock pipit |
 |
| Fulmar |
 |
| Purple sandpiper |
 |
| Purple sandpiper |
 |
| Purple sandpiper |
 |
| Kittiewake |
 |
| Great White Butterfly |
He's a stunner Sam, Red , as i call him. I saw him for the first time about 4 years ago bounding through the fields thinking it was a horse until i saw the antlers. I thought i was seeing things!! As you can imagine. He will loose his antlers soon and will lookm like a "big softie" for a while. There's a challenge for you. Before and after antlers. I'll give Brian a shout when i hear of them dropping. They'll be a nice trophy for someone.
ReplyDeleteMore nice images.
Very nice shots Sam. Love the Dunnock.
ReplyDeleteYou did well with Blackcap as it was a difficult shot in very poor light. Nice early white butterfly too. I don't think there will be many out today!!!
Stag looks even more impressive in B + W!
Pic #12 is a Mistle Thrush ;-)
ReplyDeleteSome very cool pics, I especially like the Skylark on the ground and the Fulmar shots.
ReplyDelete