Other Wildlife forum: Birds
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| The pair on Mallards I had in my garden this year, who have been regular visitors in past years but now having a pond they decided to make it their home base. The male and female taken at the same time, on 21st May 2010. They were never scared of me, I might as well have been a duck!  The female was so close I couldn't get her all in the frame but of course I was using the macro lens with teleconverter. It was 5.50pm and both were enjoying the evening with a quiet calmness.   |
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Beautiful pics, Janet! I love these Mallards  , oh I'm jaleous I can never dream of having them in my garden in the middle of a town!  |
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| Thanks Myriam, I enjoy looking back over these, it puts a big grin on my face. I have a lot of pics of these Mallards! You never know, one day you might find one on your pond! The can fly in at a very sharp angle, I saw them do it a few times while I was in the garden and they are very accurate! It was funny to see them flying overhead, then you could see they had spotted their target and made a sudden dive or another time did a circle around to return. I'll upload some more of these, I don't take many pics of birds but I seem to have accumulated a lot of pics over the year! |
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| Who knows, yes , maybe the Mallards one day will find their way to my garden, I have see them in town on the canals of Gent.. I specially love them because they have that gentle expression on their faces!  I don't have much bird pics myself, the variety that visits my garden is rather limited, a certain constant though is my big community of Sparrows! They might be 'ordinary' , but strangly enough declining in numbers since a decade or more, the main reason seems to be lack of suitable nest places..Some pics from the 25th May this year.. Calling attention from Mom (or Dad?)..  Mommy? Umh .. wonder where she is.. Mommy, I'm hungry!    |
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| Gosh! It's so young I barely recognise it as a Sparrow! Very cute, and inquisitive! Lovely captures too. On the subject of Sparrows, a male on 25th April this year with a peanut. We came eye to eye but I wasn't close to him, I wonder if he was going to feed the nut to his female on a nest!  A week earlier on 18th April, I captured a male on the guttering with a feather in his beak but he had dropped one! You can see him wondering how to get it back. :lol:  And on 3rd May a female on the Nectarine tree (non-producing ), I was close but she didn't seem to see me. The top of the head does look quite dark for a female though, but it doesn't really look like a young one so I'm not sure. |
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| What a fluffy thing! It does look like a young bird to me. Your male has strong colours! Yes, he looks like he was in a dilemma there! He could catch the falling feather in the air but then he would loose the other one |
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| While I'm sorting this years folders I might as well add some birds here! This is the first time I have ever seen a Sparrowhawk in the garden, otherwise known as Accipiter nisus, an immature male. He returned a few times and each time seemed to get his Sparrow! I hate it when they take my birds but that's nature, it needs to eat too. He really did seem to spot me inside, I took the shots through the window which is some distance away but they have sharp eyes. This was on 19th June.      |
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| Wow, that was an impressive visitor, Janet! And you were lucky to get these nice shots! Its a beautiful bird! I have never had an occasion to see mine sitting like that. He comes in a flash and leaves in a flash, with sparrow!  |
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| Impressive for sure! Before the new year arrives, it is nearly in, I must put the Redwing here which was feeding on apples on a very cold day below freezing, 26th December. I don't remember what the temp. was that day but I know we had one day with a maximum of -7C!! These overwinter here from Scandinavia but are rarely seen in gardens, coming to feed in extremely cold weather only. There was two.    |
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Jackdaws from 20th June 2010. A group were eating some bread (with the male Mallard), then one went to the peanuts and managed to get one out from where there's a broken wire! Another came to see how it was done, but the poor thing couldn't work it out, it might have been a young one. I find them so comical, the young are hilarious to watch.    |
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I have several pics of the two young Magpies exploring around the pond. I have to post them all as they tell the story, one came for a start to be joined by the other. Then one went in one direction, back to the bird bath while the other found a dead reed stem practising trying to get it's own food I think, or playing.       |
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Continued..      |
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| Beautiful story-telling series of the young two young magpies! Funny how one was playing with the dead reed stem, maybe it was practising how to make a nest of its own for when it is grown up |
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| I wondered if it was practising nest building too, their play is usually practise for later duties but not always! There is the time I got pics of one of the young skirting around behind a male Pheasant to pull his tail feathers! I'll post those when I get to them. On 22nd June there was a Moor Hen taking a swim in the pond, that was fun to watch!    |
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More of the young Magpies on 23rd June. In one of the bird bath pics there is three Magpies with one flying off, not sure if one is an adult but I think there was only two babies. One was next to the pond for a start examining the slabs intensely!     |
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| More of the michievous baby Magpies! Mom or pop Magpie checked on them to see they were behaving, you can see the size difference and sleek head feathers. They really wanted to have fun and games with the cock Pheasant but one got it's chance another time. 25th June 2010..       |
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| Lucky you to have even Moor Hens in your garden! I've only seen them in the nature reserve and sometimes in the canals of Gent. I wonder why the young magpie was so interested in the slab, maybe it saw a crawling insect.. It great fun to watch birds bathing, they look so comic with wet feathers all messed up! It doesn't look like the Pheasant was too bothered with the naughty baby magpies. Mom or Dad magpie really looks like calling them to behave properly! It is universal with all parents and babies..Lovely pics! I enjoy all of them!  How is the relation between your Magpies and the rest of your bird population? They are not welcomed in my garden, more so in the breeding season, by my other birds. Specially mom and dad Blackbirds unite forces to chase them away, the sparrows shriek nerveously. |
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| This is my regular pair of Mallards, the first time they turned up this year on 26th February which is earlier, last year I have pics from 4th March.. I saw another pair on the pond the previous day but they flew off so I knew they weren't mine! Last year there was a younger pair hanging around later in the season. They were in the roadside drain near the bridge over my roadway..  They soon came for their food, but this year they have another male in the troupe! The bigger one reminds me of the one which mated with the female at least two or three years ago, I know I still had the pics but now can't find them! I did a lot of tidying up while I had no internet but I wouldn't have deleted them, maybe my computer has gobbled them.  (Whew! I found them in 2008 folder, then my pics were listed by date so I didn't look past the first lot of Mallards!)There's actually 3 males now with the group but one of them is not allowed to feed with them, the smaller male which mated with the female last year gets his head down and runs him off poor thing but I make sure he gets some food elsewhere while they are busy. The really big male has a split in his beak the same as the female, maybe a relative? They have been mating over the last 3 or 4 days, this year it's the big male's turn while the other male keeps guard. They certainly know about mixing genes!    |
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| Lovely pictures! What a sweet looking birds not always behaving accordingly though! So nice of you to take care of the abolished male! It looks like specific rules are lined out for the different members of the Mallard community! Interesting. |
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