HERRING GULL, CORNWALL (WITH A SENSE OF STYLE)
Author: Rolling Harbour
Indispensible blog for Abaco Bahamas: Birds, Marine mammals, Reef fish, Bonefishing & a miscellany of hurricanes, shark attacks, shipwrecks, books, recipes & cocktails
COMMA BUTTERFLY BY THE RIVER FROME, DORSET
I can’t remember when I last saw a Comma, but yesterday there was one fluttering around me as I fished on the Frome. I’d forgotten how comparatively large they are. I only had a tiny camera with me, one that doesn’t matter if it goes in the water. It’s for recording fish, should I ever catch one and have a free hand available as I remove the (barbless) hook and release the fish as quickly as possible. In practice, never.
There were wonderful damselflies – blue, turquoise, reddish and green – but it would have been a waste of time to photograph them. I also saw a white egret (quite common now in Dorset) and 4 kingfishers. Or more likely the same bird 4 times.
SUMMER DUCKLINGS IN CORNWALL
BLACK-HEADED GULL STUDIES, CORNWALL
More properly, the “Chocolate-brown-headed Gull” which is how they appear in summer. These photographs are the first in a prospective series of seabird posts based on photos taken last week in Cornwall.
WREN FLEDGLING STUDIES, DORSET
The first I knew was a light thump against the window as a newly fledged wren chick misjudged its landing on the windowsill. By the time I had grabbed a camera and gone outside, it was sitting happily on the ground, cheeping persistently. It was tiny, yet completely unconcerned by my inching towards it while fiddling with the camera. I fired off a few shots, then it fluttered ineptly to a 5-barred gate. There were other piping little calls around, so plainly there were others. In the end I saw 4 that had flown, and located the nest in the stable – I could hear the plaintive peeping of the last to leave the nest. There were dark and pale birds, presumably male and female. Mostly they stayed separate though in the same area. However I did get one shot of a pair on the top rail of a gate – suitably posed for a caption competition. So here are a few of the photos of miniature versions of what is already one of the UK’s smallest species. For size comparison, the stones are small gravel chips.
Captions?
I tried to get some photos mid-cheep – surprisingly difficult to do. Mostly the attempts did not work out, but I quite liked this little fledgling having a squeak in the middle of an area of gravel
METAMORPHOSIS! SOUTHERN HAWKER DRAGONFLY EMERGENCE
AMAZING DRAGONFLY METAMORPHOSIS SEQUENCE
I very rarely reblog, but this set of photos from Foraging Photographer are so intriguing that they deserve to be shared around…
Actually it’s an incomplete metamorphosis, as dragon and damselflies not have a pupal stage like butterflies. Nevertheless, seeing a fully formed dragonfly emerge from the body of an aquatic nymph is a spectacular thing to see.
I’ve photographed the emergence of an adult dragonfly from its nymph body before – HERE – but I was very pleased to get the chance to do it again on Friday. To see a creature go from this…
to this…
…is one of the most remarkable transformations in nature.
Since we built our pond five years ago, we’ve had a variety of dragon and damselfly nymphs in there. As the pond has developed from bare sand substrate with a few plants through to its current state of abundant overgrown vegetation, different species have made it their nursery, the size of the nymphs (and eventual adults) increasing in size year on year. In the first…
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COOT FEET IN CLOSE-UP: GO COMPARE WITH A MOORHEN
My last post was a short video of coots at WWT Barnes feeding weed to their young, something I hadn’t seen before. Last weekend we had our 2-year old granddaughter to stay and took her to Ravenscourt Park (West London) to look at squirrels, ducks and a lot of manky feral pigeons. There were coots on a nest in the middle of the lake; and there were more strutting round on the grass. I don’t think I have ever bothered to notice the peculiarities of a coot’s foot before. To many people, myself included, a coot is mainly a moorhen with a white beak arrangement instead of a red one. So take a look at a foot comparison. Double-click for a detailed view, especially the close-up #3.
Moorhen’s feet for comparison – completely different structurally
HOW COOTS FEED THEIR CHICKS (VIDEO)
A couple of days ago I wanted to photograph some birds – Black-bellied Whistling Ducks for my main blog – at WWT Barnes at a moment when I had no camera with me. So I had to use my phone. There were some coots feeding their chicks in an amusing routine involving a great deal of work by the parents. I was amused by the little chick that didn’t join the frenzy, but quietly grazed on the vegetation at the edge of the pond.
‘SILFLAY’: RABBITS I SHOT LAST NIGHT…
With a camera, OK? Clearing a gateway to the field opposite our house has revealed a burrow. It’s no surprise, it’s a good year for rabbits in this part of Dorset, and I have already filled 3 burrows dug in our garden… But I suspect there’s a massive warren, and they just pop up again somewhere else. A couple of nights ago I took a few photos of rabbits enjoying ‘Silflay’ (© Richard Adams, Watership Down), the evening feed in the open. A glitch eradicated them. Yesterday evening in the sunshine, I took some closer shots of 2 rabbits by the burrow. Very picturesque. As long as they stay that side of the road…
A HOMING PIGEON TAKES A REST IN DORSET
We had a visitor yesterday. He announced his arrival by tramping around on a length of corrugated plastic roofing. I noticed he was ringed, double ringed in fact. So he was clearly an important visitor. I spent ages trying to get the numbers on the 2 rings, especially the ‘inside’ parts. When his legs were visible, he was too far for me to make out the numbers. When he was close (some corn helped), he was too plump for me to get a glimpse of his inside leg. In the end, once he had happily made himself at home and strolled into the house, I lay drown and photographed his undercarriage. Undignified for both of us, but by zooming on-screen I got the full numbers. So if anyone out there owns J03547 (Jersey prefix?) with a phone number 739776, I’ve got your bird…
He was very tame, but slightly reluctant to let me touch him. He ate corn from my hand, though, and lapped up some fresh cold water. He seemed in excellent condition. He settled down on a low roof for the night, a very safe roost and I assumed that by this morning he would have continued on his way. Not a bit of it: he’s still here. Maybe I made life too comfortable. I checked online, and apparently in these circumstances it is good to welcome the visitor, feed it (seeds, corn, strictly no bread) and give it water. If it’s still around after 48 hours, withdraw the gratis bed and breakfast arrangement and in due course the message will be got. You hope. Meanwhile, I had the perfect opportunity to take some head shots, having noticed the iridescence of the vivid green and purple colouring in watery evening sunlight. The green in particular was startlingly bright, very like the exotic and glorious sheen on a cuban emerald hummingbird (see http://rollingharbour.com for examples). And this on a ‘mere’ Columba…
ROLLING HARBOUR GALLERY 