Beeston Birdman

I was able to photograph both the male and female Stonechat at Attenborough today (20.01). The male did not come as close as the female so his photo (left) is not so sharp.

I decided to go local to Attenborough today. The ‘new spot’ was a couple of Stonechats but I only got photographs of the female. I’ve included a picture of a male from my archive for comparison, I think also taken at ANR.

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Being a sunny day I also had better views of the Cattle Egrets, Slavonian Grebe and bothe male and female Goldeneye.

I looked at the latest edition of Bird Watching magazine for the first time yesterday (Friday) and was delighted to see that they had included something I had submitted by email about attracting woodpeckers into our garden. Fame at last!

Because it brightened up later this afternoon I was able to do a bit of armchair birding through the dining room window. The female blackcap visited the feeders as she does most days but later on I thought I saw a male blackcap. When he also visited the feeder my suspicion was confirmed.

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The male is the one with the black cap. I’m hoping to get to Rutland Water tomorrow so watch this space.

Had a walk around the lake at Wollaton Park this morning (13/01) in the hope of seeing the reported Rose Ringed Parakeets. I actually saw two that appeared to be taking possession of a potential nesting hole.

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I was pleased to photograph this female Reed Bunting on a walk around Attenborough on Wednesday 8th.

Fri 10th. A Goldcrest has been visiting the feeding station for the last few days. It is difficult to get a good picture as it is so active . This is the sharpest. Note the blue colouring on the back.

Another shot showing the gold crest.

I cut short my walk around the lake at Highfields (University Park) yesterday (07/01) because it began to rain heavily. I sheltered under a tree by the ‘Stepping Stones’ and let the wildlife come to me. Having taken several shots of a Little Egret in a tree opposite, a male Goosander and a Heron I focused in on a smaller bird that alighted on one of the stones which turned out to be a Kingfisher!

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Note the extraordinary yellow feet of the Little Egret and the raindrops ‘bouncing’ on the water around the Goosander. The Kingfisher dived into the water several times but I couldn’t be sure it caught anything. These were all taken from my sheltered position over about 15 min. Not a bad haul for a rainy day!

Had real close-up views of the Slavonian Grebe at Attenborough Nature Reserve today (04/01).