Spot the nest

I went for a walk around Abbey Lakes at Upholland this afternoon; lakes being a bit of a misnomer as there is only one small lake. Blackcaps were well represented with at least 5 singing males and a Common Sandpiper was a good record for this small site. I found a couple of nests without really trying including the one in the photographs below.

Spot the nest.

This should make it a lot easier. The female is sat on the nest.

and there she is.

It is not unusual for Mallards to nest in natural cavities in trees and I have even known them use a Kestrel nest box and a basket that had been put up for Long-eared Owls. This particular nest was 3 metres off the ground and may have been used by this female in previous years.

Tree nesting Mallard.

25th March 2012 Blue sky brings photography blues

Another glorious day but I decided to give ringing a rest and go for a walk in Orrell Water Park with the dog and the 'big' camera. There wasn't much about at first and what there was chose not to be very co-operative. It is funny how birds and wildlife in general seem to flaunt themselves when you are not carrying a camera!

Patience paid off and I eventually got some good views of a few birds and butterflies but I fluffed most of my shots as I kept getting the camera settings wrong for the conditions. I haven't used the Nikon for a while and I clearly need to get used to all the controls again.

I was still hopeful that I had got a few good shots but when I got home and viewed them on computer I realised that I had made a bigger hash of things than I had thought. The following are the best of a really bad bunch and I could kick myself for not getting much better results.

Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)

Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

female Grey Wgtail (Motacilla cinerea)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)