Zim Girl's 5th Big Year 2022

[Zim Girl]

21.  Common Blackbird

Male

Female

 

[Zim Girl]

22.  Common Chaffinch

 

[Zim Girl]

This one took me by surprise.  I was taking pictures of the chaffinches and suddenly this appeared from nowhere.

 

23.  Eurasian Treecreeper

 

[Zim Girl]

My favourite small bird pictures of the day.

 

24.  Eurasian Nuthatch

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Most of the ducks were a long way off from the hides as there had been a hard frost overnight and the lake was frozen closest to the hides.

 

25.  Gadwall

 

 

[Zim Girl]

26.  Eurasian Teal

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Very nice photos of all these regulars! 

[Zim Girl]

27.  Northern Pintail

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

These two juveniles made a change for a swan picture.

 

28.  Mute Swan

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Finally, no worries about not getting close enough to this duck.  They had their heads in my pockets trying to get the seed!

 

29.  Mallard

Female

Male

 

 

[Galana]

A decent result for your outing. Love the Nuthatch.

[Zim Girl]

19 hours ago, Galana said:

A decent result for your outing. Love the Nuthatch.

Thank you, I was pretty pleased with the Nuthatch.

[TonyQ]

@Zim Girlyou are getting very good images from your current camera

[Zim Girl]

19 hours ago, TonyQ said:

@Zim Girlyou are getting very good images from your current camera

Thank you for saying, Tony.

 

[Peter Connan]

Lovely shots of the Mallards!

[Soukous]

On 1/21/2022 at 2:09 PM, Zim Girl said:

However, the bug does bite and I haven't been able to help myself looking for birds while out and about, and if you see one then you just have to take it's picture!!

 

so true

[Zim Girl]

There hasn't been much opportunity for getting out lately with all the dreadful weather but managed a few of the more common water loving birds.

 

30.  Canada Goose

Pine Lake, nr Carnforth  -  29/01/22

 

[Zim Girl]

31.  Tufted Duck

Female

Male

Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve  -  14/02/22

 

 

[Zim Girl]

32.  Black-headed Gull

 

Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve  -  14/02/22

 

[Zim Girl]

33.  Eurasian Coot

Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve  -  14/02/22

 

[Dave Williams]

Your photos certainly  don't need much in the way of improvement in my opinion, I'd be happy having taken them anyway.

Talking of which, as soon as the weather allows I'm heading up your way in search of Barn Owls, so I hope the Tree Sparrows, Twite , Swans and Geese are still about too! I'm envious of your tally so far.

[Zim Girl]

On 2/18/2022 at 1:44 PM, Dave Williams said:

Your photos certainly  don't need much in the way of improvement in my opinion, I'd be happy having taken them anyway.

Talking of which, as soon as the weather allows I'm heading up your way in search of Barn Owls, so I hope the Tree Sparrows, Twite , Swans and Geese are still about too! I'm envious of your tally so far.

 

Thank you very much Dave.

The birds are still around, the hardest thing at the moment is getting any decent weather to see them.

[Zim Girl]

Well we had a bit of drama happening in the back garden a short while ago.

A Sparrowhawk flew past the window into one of the areas of the garden with bird feeders.  We could hear squealing and carefully looked out to see what he had caught.  We couldn't see anything at first and then realised he was now right underneath the window.  He was on top of a Starling.  Being very careful not to disturb him I was able to get a few pictures of him beginning to pluck his prey.  I stood back for a while because the starling's cries were pitiful and it was actually quite hard to watch.  It eventually went quiet and I sneaked another couple of pictures but I could see the starling was still alive as it's beak was still moving.

About another minute later the Sparrowhawk flew off carrying the starling.  

I hope it was able to finish it's meal somewhere and put the poor starling out of it's misery.

 

The first shot is uncropped and all were taken through two sets of windows, and it was pouring with rain.

 

34.  Eurasian Sparrowhawk

 

It starts to pluck the Starling.

 

 

 

 

 

The Starling is still alive here.

 

 

[xelas]

What an extraordinary set of photos showing nature at work!

[PeterHG]

That must have been something, to watch this drama through the window and even being able to grab some photos!