Garden Birds

Jackdaw, Corvus monedula, in my garden in Crowborough. 15 June 2017.

So, I have been lounging on my sofa with a longish lens in my camera (200mm with a 1.4x extender) taking shots of birds through my window.  There are several familiar species.  A few are missing, so far at least.  This one, the Western Jackdaw, never appeared in my old garden so it was a surprise to see two of them eyeing up my lawn.

House Sparrows, Passer domesticus, in my back garden in Crowborough.  15 June 2017.

House Sparrows used to be very common but are now less so, and are another species I didn't see in my Hayes garden, so I am pleased that a little flock of them like my sunflower heart feeder.  The one in flight is a male.

House Sparrows, Passer domesticus, in my back garden in Crowborough.  Male feeding young.  15 June 2017.

He was taking the sunflower seed hearts to feed this young one on my back fence.

Young Bluetits seem more capable of finding their own food.

Young Bluetit, Cyanistes caeruleus, in my back garden in Crowborough.  15 June 2017.

Tits like peanuts, which they take to a safe spot to eat bit by bit.  I saw a Great Tit earlier, but didn't get a photo.  No Coal Tits as yet, though.

Another of the crow family has also appeared.

Magpie, Pica pica, over my back fence in Crowborough.  15 June 2017.

A Magpie.  And there are two of the dove family:

Collared Dove, Streptopelia decaocto, on my back fence in Crowborough.  15 June 2017.

A Collared Dove, and several Wood Pigeons:

Wood Pigeon, Columba palumbus, on my back lawn in Crowborough.  15 June 2017.

Several birds like to investigate the lawn when it has just been mown.  The Wood Pigeons stroll around as though they own the place.  Most of the birds are more cautious.

I have seen (but not photographed) a pair of blackbirds, and there are sometimes a few starlings:

Common starling, Sturnus vulgaris, on my back lawn in Crowborough.  15 June 2017.

Starlings usually work over the lawn in groups, looking for grubs such as leatherjackets - which are cranefly grubs that eat grass roots, so the starlings are a good thing.  I suspect I won't have much slug or snail trouble, either, given the high general level of bird activity here.

It's not just birds that like the garden:

Cat on my back fence in Crowborough.  15 June 2017.

But I think this visitor likes the birds rather than the lawn.

Monad Treasures

Bee on a yellow Composite.  Lasioglossum species.  Hayes Street Farm, 18 June 2015.

For the last two years I have been joining in a large project to record all the wild flowers in the Greater London area.  Those who take part pick a monad, a one kilometer square, and walk round it during the year to see what can be found.  You have to go round several times in different seasons to pick up everything.

I have two monads this year.  One of them includes a couple of small suburban parks, a churchyard and graveyard, and some farmland. I have found some surprising plants here, some of them scarce in Kent.  Of course, I also see insects, like the bee above, a Lasioglossum.  I'm afraid I don't know the species.

Clustered Dock, Rumex conglomeratus, on Hayes Street Farm. 18 June 2015

Most docks are tricky to identify unless you can examine their seeds, but this one is easier.  It has many branches that come off at nearly 90 degrees from an angled stem, and it is leafy almost right to the tip.  It's Clustered Dock, and it usually grows in wet places, so I was surprised to find it next to a farm track.  In fact I also found it in the pond mud in Husseywell Park.  Here's a closeup:

Clustered Dock, Rumex conglomeratus, on Hayes Street Farm. 18 June 2015

Because it's not easy to see the details of the whole plant against the green background. This is a delicate and lovely little dock, quite unlike most of the others which are sometimes very large and cabbagey.

Husseywell Park also gave me a Wall Lettuce:

Wall Lettuce, Mycelis muralis, by the pond in Husseywell Park, Hayes.  18 June 2015.

What called my attention to this, which at any distance is just another yellow composite, were the flowers:

Wall Lettuce, Mycelis muralis, by the pond in Husseywell Park, Hayes.  18 June 2015.

They all have exactly five florets, a real giveaway.  This is the first time I have found one of these in my area, so despite the rather ratty and mildewed look of this plant, I was delighted.

I also found this ...

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, in Husseywell Park, Hayes.  18 June 2015.

 The Moorhens have batches of chicks, and they show little fear of people.  Look at the size of those feet! 

The name "Husseywell" comes from Housewife's Well.

Dunorlan Park

Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea.  Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells, 17 March 2014.

I walked round Dunorlan Park in Tunbridge Wells today (17th March) and thought it looked rather tame compared with the country parks I usually go to.  Short grass, a small lake, not much botanical  going on.  But it wasn't all like that, and I was pleased to find a couple of things I had wanted to get a good photo of.

One was this Coltsfoot.

Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara.  Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells, 17 March 2014.

It's not at all rare, but I don't know of any good patches near my home.  It's one of those plants that puts out flowers before you see any leaves.  There were a few very healthy clumps among rocks right next to the water.  People - like my companion that day - tend to glance at it and think it's a Dandelion, but the lack of leaves and those thick, scaly flower stems say very clearly that it's not.

Greylag Goose, Anser anser.  Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells, 17 March 2014.

The other thing I had been looking for was an Alder.  There are lots of the larger Italian Alder planted near me as a street tree, but the one below is the less robust Alnus glutinosa.  The purplish, slightly flattened leaf buds are unlike the rounded greener buds on the Italian variety.

Alders have small, loosely knit cones later in the year, and the old ones hang around all year long.  Here are the small red female flowers in structures that develop into cones later.

Alder, Alnus glutinosa, leaf bud and female flowers.  Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells, 17 March 2014.

Of course, there were also a few birds around, and I photographed some on principle.  I had my EOS 6D with 100mm macro lens and ring flash, and I don't hump that around and then not take photos with it.

Blue Tit

Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleus.  Hayes, 27 January 2014.

I am not a dedicated bird photographer.  These shots were taken hand held through my window and they lack the extreme clarity of proper bird photos, but they do show the bird quite nicely.  This is the most common bird I see in my garden. They come regularly for peanuts or sunflower seed hearts.

Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleus, attacking a kernel.  Hayes, 27 January 2014.

Fun to watch.  They usually take a nut up to a branch and eat it there, breaking it up and swallowing it piece by piece, but this one stuck around the feeder.

I used a 200mm lens with a 2x extender.

An iPhone in London

Covent Garden, 9 August 2013.

These days, often the only camera I have with me is my iPhone.  It's all completely automatic, but it takes quite a good quality photo and is always there.  So here are a few shots taken in London this year; nothing special, just things I wanted to capture. There is only a little nature involved.  There will be more of that next time.

This sandy arena (arena seems the right word for such a thing!) had been set up at Covent Garden for some sort of marketing publicity.  It looked rather like a giant hovercraft except for the ball players inside.

Queue for the V&A on 30 May 2013

I went with my sister to see the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A.  But these queues are quite usual even without a popular exhibition.  The whole place is popular.

Diana's Diner, Endell Street, 9 August 2013.

Probably the last chance to take a photo of this shop front.  It's sad when small places like this close down, specially in the heart of London.  Though, it might just be a refurbishment.

Harris Hawk in Trafalgar Square, 23 July 2013.

And here's some nature .. but well tamed.  This is a Harris Hawk, used to control the pigeons in Trafalgar Square.  Not to hunt and kill them, but to scare them off.  It works well, too, combined with the banning of stalls selling bird food.  There used to be drifts of pigeons everywhere, and everything was covered with bird droppings.  Now there are hardly any, and the whole place looks better for it.  You can see a couple in the background.

I was surprised to find this bird apparently unattended.  I have seen their handlers before, in quiet side streets with their birds on their arms, but never birds alone like this.  And look how normal the people seem to think it is to have a large, sharp-beaked raptor perched nearby! 

Jubilee Country Park, February.

Butcher's Broom, Ruscus aculeatus.  Jubilee Country Park, 23 February 2013.

A few of the Orpington Field Club had a stroll around Jubilee Country Park on a cold and windy day with light snow.  Mostly we were looking for birds, which are not my speciality, so I was on the lookout for anything else of interest too. I was pleased to find that, having made the basic settings, I could operate my camera wearing thick gloves.

There were some snowdrops in bud, and cherry trees just coming into flower.  This bush was probably the best sighting, in Thornet Wood.  Butcher's Broom is a good indicator of ancient woodland, and here you can see the buds and flowers and a big fruit emerging from the middle of the leaf-like cladodes.

We did see some birds too, mostly Magpies, Gulls, Pigeons and Crows.  There were a few others, and I made an attempt at photographing them.  I make no claims for the quality of these.  This bird was the prettiest; a tiny one, too fast-moving for me to get a proper shot.  By the time I had focused on it, it was somewhere else.

Goldcrest, Regulus regulus.  Jubilee Country Park, 23 February 2013.

And another bird with a golden name:

Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis.  Jubilee Country Park, 23 February 2013.

Robins are easy to photograph in gardens.  They are well-known for following gardeners around, watching for worms turned up by the digging.  Here, they stayed a bit further away.

European Robin, Erithacus rubecula.  Jubilee Country Park, 23 February 2013.

But my favourite photo is this one, one of the magpies taking off from its perch in a tree, missing a twig by a tiny margin.

Magpie, Pica pica.  Jubilee Country Park, 23 February 2013.

More from Otford

Filston Oast from the road.   Otford, 2 February 2013.

On our walk from Otford we saw several oast-houses, probably all converted like this one into living spaces, as they all had the same white-painted vents.

We also saw some unexpected birds.

Pea-fowl, Pavo cristatus, on top of a house.  Otford, 2 February 2013.

There's a cock in the middle, and hens to either side.  This post gives them a good view of their surroundings, and it's also possible that there is more warmth up there than we were experiencing on the track below.

High in a nearby tree I saw this:

Mistletoe, Viscum album.  Otford, 2 February 2013.

An evergreen parasite, able to get sufficient food and water from its host tree to keep green in the depths of winter even when the host has closed down for the season.

There were still a few berries around, even in this unproductive winter.

Garden Privet berries, Ligustrum ovalifolium.  Otford, 2 February 2013.

Although this was out in the fields, it the cultivated hedgerow species rather than the wild one.  It has broader leaves than the wild species, and hangs on to them much better in the winter.  It was nowhere near a garden, but it was on the edge of a path where hedgerow species might have been planted.

Here's a map of where the photos were taken:

Anticlockwise from the bottom right: Privet, Mistletoe, Peafowl.  And the view, taken with a different camera, was from Filston Lane on the left.

Four Tits

Blue-tit, Cyanistes caeruleus, in my garden in Hayes.  30 November 2012.

Please don't think I am putting these up as examples of bird photography.  I took them through my window, often with branches obscuring parts of the birds, sometimes at odd angles or blurry.  They are here to show the fun I get from having a bird feeder in my garden.

I managed to get some sort of image of all four types of tit that come to the feeder.  The Bluetit is the commonest, a bright and pretty bird.  Blue cap, yellow breast.

Great Tit, Parus major.  In my garden in Hayes on 27 November 2012.

Next commonest it the Great Tit, with a shiny black cap and a broad black stripe down its breast.  All these birds love peanuts, which should not be fed to them in the spring in case they choke the chicks. They take them to  a branch and peck away at them.

Coal-tit, Periparus ater, in my garden in Hayes.  30 November 2012.

Coal Tits have a black cap with a white stripe.  They are less common, and I was pleased to see a pair.  They had been missing since a recent harsh winter. 

Long-tailed Tit, Aegithalos caudatus, in my garden in Hayes.  27 November 2012.

I only just managed to get this shot, and I apologise for its blurriness.  Long-tailed Tits are smaller than the others.  They live in the woods, and move around in small flocks, usually accompanied by a few of the other species.  Just occasionally they will decide to foray around their local gardens, and they are only there for a few minutes, so you have to be lucky to see them.

I also see Robins, Dunnocks, Jays, Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Wood Pigeons, Collared Doves, and occasionally Wrens.  Some of them like the feeder, and some forage below it for pieces dropped by the others, or turn over dead leaves elsewhere.  My garden is too small for the local crows to like it.  But I am pleased that I planted Hawthorns.  The small birds feel safe in the maze of thorny branches.

Grey Herons in Kelsey Park

Young Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, in Kelsey Park on 27 October 2012

I am not a bird-watcher, but occasionally they present themselves to be photogpaphed, like this young Grey Heron.  There are several heron nests in Kelsey Park and the young ones seem to be less concerned about people than their more experienced elders.

The bird below seems to be going for a stroll.

Young Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, in Kelsey Park on 27 October 2012

Nashenden Down, April, Part 1

Kestrel hovering by  Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

I was expecting another overcast and drizzly field trip, but this time we had lots of sun!  Though it was cold.  I took my SLR this time. This Nature Reserve has a very rich flora and I was able to take lots of interesting photos. Because it is still early in the year, many of them are of immature plants; for example, leaf rosettes without any flower heads. This is excellent learning material, because of course the flowers are only there for part of the year.

The Reserve is close to the River Medway, near the towns of Rochester and Strood, and is right next to the M2 and the High Speed Rail Link. So it is never quiet, but on Saturday we were the only people there.

Right on the lane where we parked were some Coltsfoots, a nice little plant that I used to see a lot in County Durham but which I see very rarely down here.

Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara.  Nashenden Farm Lane, 14 April 2012.

The flower is about the same colour as a Dandelion, but the florets are packed more densely and the stem is scaly. The flowers come up before the leaves, and among the grass I could see some of each, but never together.

Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara.  Nashenden Farm Lane, 14 April 2012.

The leaves come up covered with a whitish down, and as the leaf grows and the down stretches it takes on the appearance of a mesh. It rubs off easily, and I have rubbed it off part of this leaf, exposing the shiny new leaf surface below. I used to love doing this as a child.

The path goes round the field that forms the main part of the reserve, following a hedgerow to begin with. Part of the path is on the far side of the hedgerow from the main reserve, next to agricultural land. Here are some of the group in a huddle discussing the small plant to their left.

The group in a huddle next to a Charlock, Sinapis arvensis.  Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

It's a common weed of turnips and related crops. The spread of yellow-flowered plants is a field of Oilseed Rape, Brassica rapus. This crop produces rapeseed oil in the UK, and canola oil in America. (The name Rape is derived from the Latin for turnip.) Here is the Charlock flower:

Flower of Charlock, Sinapis arvensis. Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

Next, a pleasant plant of chalky soils; Crosswort. It forms low clumps, and here it is growing vigorously by the side of the path.

Crosswort, Cruciata laevipes. Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

In the absence of flowers we were undecided about this, though really it is distinctively four-sided. But then one of the group came back down the path with a flowering specimen she had spotted further on.

Crosswort, Cruciata laevipes. Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

This is unmistakeable. It is a close relation of the Bedstraws, and there was also a young Hedge Bedstraw plant nearby.

Hedge Bedstraw, Galium album. Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

A much more robust plant, and more upright when mature.

Today's last flower photo is an Early Purple Orchid which was flowering in a small patch of woodland.

Early Purple Orchid, Orchis mascula. Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

In this post, the photo of the group, and the scene below, were taken with my Ixus 100, and the other photos were taken with my EOS 60D and 100mm macro lens.

A track over the field. Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.