Female Reed Bunting

After the awful weather of Friday I was quite relieved when Saturday turned out nice. At dawn the ground was still wet from the day before and low grey cloud was hanging on. By about 10 am the sun broke through and filled the land with a pleasantly warm and crisp light. This made all the wet surfaces at Watermead steam gently as they dried out. Down by King Lears lake I spotted this female Reed Bunting stripping the seeds from the reed heads. Its harder to spot the females as they tend not to advertise themselves like the males do.

Further on I spotted this Greenfinch at the top of an small Oak Tree. With so many ducks around it is easy to forget about the smaller birds.

This male Robin was boldly marking his territory by singing his heart out. As I walked along I passed through neighboring territories and would come across the next male robin and then the next. Once you had tuned in to it, it was like being sung all the way back to the car.

Fledglings in the garden

My garden has seen some activity recently. A Robin (Erithacus rubecula) appeared one day and had a look around. Soon the robin was back, again and again. Gaining in boldness the Robin explored all the corners of the garden and being satisfied that it was safe and that there could be no sneak attack from a predator, brought a pair of fledglings down (as in the picture above). These baby Robins are just so cute! Mum (below) is busy stuffing them with grubs (including all the remaining Sawfly grubs on the rose). In fact she has become increasingly bold and will now happily root around in the garden just feet from you.

Recently I decided to give next doors hedge a good haircut. I say haircut, it was perhaps more like a number 2 in barbers terms. Anyway, whilst doing so I disturbed a few Large yellow underwing moths (Noctua pronuba, pictured below). In a flash of yellow they would take flight and be away. On one occasion whilst still within the circle made by my hedge cutter wielding arms a moth flew up. Out of nowhere Mrs Robin darted through, avoided the chainsaw wielding fool and caught the moth in mid air, mere inches from the end of my nose. It was spectacular if not a little startling for a man in my position i.e. at the top of a ladder with a heavy duty electric tree murdering machine in my hands. Yet again it seems nature is just jumping out at me!