Pond Iced Over

Pond in the grip of a cold snap. Picture taken with my camera phone hence the 'grey' rather than white look to the picture as I was unable to adjust the exposure to compensate.

12 December 2022 

Ice is nice!

Click twice for macro ice views!

 

Little Egret Compilation - Pondside Visit

 

Little Egret and Male Teal on Pond (Camera Trap)

With the mornings and nights being so dark, I only get to see the pond in daylight at the weekends when not at work, so thought I would set up the camera trap to try to get some intimate images of the Teal that  I knew were using the pond.  As you can see from the video, I only managed to get a distant  view of a Male Teal, but when I looked through the 40 videos that were triggered over the course of the week, I was surprised and excited to see that I had managed to capture a short video of a visiting Little Egret.  The 38 other videos from the week were a mixture of Mallard and Moorhens bobbing about in the fog; not very exciting, so I decided not to post those.  The great thing about a camera trap is there is always that opportunity to be surprised by what you see.  I have seen little Egret on the pond one or two times before in the summer but was super pleased to see that they are still attracted to come to my little pond when I am at work, the "Build it and they will come" expression seems to hold some truth.   What a great way to start the weekend after a busy week in the office. 

I have slowed the video's down to extend thet viewing time of both birds as the original clips are quiet short; if you look closely, you can see that the Egret is dabbing about with its feet in the native  pond weed  (Booklime/Veronica Beccabunga) the edge of the pond, it is trying to flush out food prey. Enjoy!

 

Oh to be a Fly on the wall...

Click images for detailed and enlarged views

Mini-beasts caught my eye for an hour or so this afternoon as nothing much else was playing ball. These flies were variously sitting about on the sunny (south) side of the Ash, Oak and Cherry trees in our little woodland patch.  I would not want one in my soup but they do make for fascinating subjects to practice my macro photography on as for the most part they are not too skittish if you take your time to get into position.   

I had my lunch when I encountered this group of flies helping themselves to a feast of bird poo which had landed on the tree trunk.  Everything has a purpose!

These next two images put me in mind of a Cadbury's cream egg... How do you eat yours?

White Campion - Silene latifolia

 Click pictures for larger images

Campion still in flower at this late stage of the year - a new Macro lens and flash speedlight helped get these detailed images.

Cotoneaster and Iris Berries providing a burst of autumn color

Iris Berries

Cotoneaster Berries

 

Short Woodland Compilation from Camera Trap

 

Beetles and Boatmen...

 Gotta love a ladybird!

Click for larger views

This water beetle was quite active moving from underwater onto fringed lily plants and then climbing up plant stems to be completely clear before flying off to a different part of the pond.

The water boatman below was also in a restless move and climbed the reedmace. I have no idea what the motivation was to leave the water. 

The boatman below was rescued from my wheel barrow as I was clearing out the excess leaves from the pond.

 

Dunnock

 

Fantastic Fungi

 Hare's foot inkcap - Coprinopsis lagopus

The rest of these fungi require some research to be confident in naming them, so for now they are simply a record in time for what was on display. 

Jelly Ear

Auricularia auricula-judae

A perennial favourite, the Robin

 

A common but beautiful bird that always brings colour to a dull day. 

Click for larger images.

Don't look back in anger.

Standing guard.

When the boat comes in.

Reflections...

Due to the low light conditions these were taken with a very high ISO setting (1000) hence the rather mottled quality of the pictures when viewed in a larger window.

Duck Day Afternoon - Teal and Mallard Bonanza

Teal for two... It seems that the waterfowl are becoming much more acquainted with the pond as autumn creeps forward; there were no less than 20 birds on the pond this morning. At first look, it seemed that the cohort was made up of the ubiquitous Mallard, but after a few minutes with the binoculars I was able to count three pairs of Teal, two Dabchicks (Little Grebe), and two Moorhens; the remaining cohort were the charming but less exciting mallard.  Not to be rude about the mallards, these are truly wild mallard that lift from the pond the moment you get within 50 meters of approaching them, as the Mallard lift off, they spook the other birds into flight also (no opportunity to feed the ducks with breadcrusts on this pond). I should not blame the Mallards for my poor stalking skills and to be honest I think the Teal were onto me fairly early on. The rather poor pictures below are a testament to how difficult it was to get close enough to capture the exquisite colours and markings of the tiny Teal. As my first ever pictures of Teal on the pond, I'm happy to have been able to record of their presence but I hope to fair MUCH BETTER in the future...  This may involve getting my portable hide out and spend a few hours in waiting to get better pictures, however the trouble with that plan is that that the birds drop in at dusk during low light levels and approaching them during the day / in the morning to get into the hide unseen would be just as difficult. I'm not quite ready to spend all night in the hide to wait until the morning when light levels will be more favorable, so for now, I have resorted to put the camera trap out and hopefully that will do my bidding and provide some close-up video and stills of the Teal without risking disturbing them. 

   

Two Teal preening

Male Mallard (foreground) 3 x Teal background

Spooked Mallard leaving in a hurry...

Closely followed by the Teal

 

Grey Wagtail - Honoured Visitor to my little patch of the Fens

Click pictures for more detailed view.

This Grey Wagtail (Female) kindly dropped by when I had a cup of tea and my Nikon camera on my lap.  It was just 3-4 meters away and 

 it simply ignored me and carried on about its business!  I always confuse Grey and Yellow Wagtails in my head as the bright yellow rump is so very yellow, and my thoughts jump to yellow rather than grey. On closer inspection the two birds are quite different.  As the name suggests, this bird was wagging its tail up and down the entire time it was on the ground.  Beautiful autumn colours of the northern 'red oak' leaves helping to add some contrast and texture to the picture.   

  

 

Common Darter - Pair