Barnes

Just a short posting this week.  I visited the London Wetland Centre at Barnes recently.  It was more of a social meeting up with a friend than a photographic outing.

Here's a young Grey Heron (wild) that had decided to join the humans for a look round the collections ...

...and a foxglove.

Weyhill

These are images taken on a visit to the Hawk Conservancy, Weyhill, Hampshire.

The first 3 images are of wild birds.

Magpie

Grey Heron

Kestrel

African Eagle Owl

Secretary Bird

The name is popularly thought to derive from the crest of long quill-like feathers that give the appearance of secretaries with quill pens tucked behind their ears as was once common practice. However, another hypothesis is that ‘secretary’ is borrowed from a French corruption of the Arabic name for the bird  –  saqr-et-tair or ‘hunter-bird’.

Verreaux's Eagle Owl

Perhaps a dubious privilege to be named after Jules Pierre Verreaux (1807–1873).  He was a French botanist and ornithologist and was a professional collector of and trader in natural history specimens. He was the brother of Edouard Verreaux and nephew of Pierre Antoine Delalande.  The family business (Maison Verreaux) was taxidermy!

White-backed Vulture

Black Kite

Eurasian Eagle Owl

Steeple Langford

These are images taken at Langford Lakes, Steeple Langford, Wiltshire.  The reserve is owned and run by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

Mute Swan

Coot

Great Crested Grebe

 

These are the Grebe that lost their family in May.

Canada Goose

By way of a postscript, here is the nearest I have to a Womble  to clear up bits in my garden.

Wood Mouse

Its place of duty is beneath the feeding-station.

A day in Gloucestershire

The images posted today were taken mid-May at the WWT reserve at Slimbridge, Goucestershire.

Firstly, the wild birds:

Common Crane

This bird is standing at the nest-site (hidden in the vegetation).

The eggs on which the Crane were sitting hatched 2-3 days after this photograph was taken.  It made the national news because, had the two chicks survived, they would have been the first to have been bred successfully in the wild in Great Britain for over 400 years.  Sadly, one disappeared in May and on 6 June 2014 the Trust reported the disappearance of the second.  For the fuller report see http://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/slimbridge/news/2014/06/wwt-slimbridge-news/sadness-as-first-wild-crane-in-the-west-for-400-years-disappears.

There was a mention on BBC Springwatch on 11 June 2014.

The parents are two of the birds hatched at Slimbridge (from imported eggs) and relocated on the Somerset Levels.  This is one of two pairs that have returned and taken up residence at Slimbridge.

 

Little Egret

 

 

Mute Swan

Water Rail (juvenile)

Greylag Goose (juvenile)

Secondly, birds in the collections at the reserve.  (Some are actually species that can be found in the wild in Great Britain.)

Black-winged Stilt

Avocet

Ruff ♂

Smew ♂

Smew ♀

Flamingo*

*I'm not sure which species