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Monday, 30 October 2017

Pond life

 Still no sign of the small birds that have disappeared from the village. My feeders in the garden the food is going rotten and having to be thrown away. Occasionally I hear a robin but nothing else. My nearest sign of life is at the village pond where this cormorant and heron are often seen together.
 The heron is a young bird which I think has come from a heronry about 2 miles away and has adopted the pond as his feeding place, a good fishing spot too.  Plenty of food around where people feed the ducks, mallard, coot, moorhen, corvids, gulls, wood pigeon and the occasional mute swan but no sparrows or finches. It has been like this for more than a year. I am baffled.
Me and my shadow

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7 comments:

  1. Ken.1 November 2017 at 20:51

    Hi Mike.
    I was hoping to have more passerines in my garden but they seem to be very slow arriving this year. I have got a few of the usual finches and tits, but not many. I am sure yours will pick up soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike Attwood2 November 2017 at 01:03

      I don't think so Ken, this has been going on for more than a year. I am working on the idea that an insecticide was used that killed off invertibrates that the young birds are fed on. Mice and voles have also gone as have the owls and kites that were quite common last year.

      Delete
  2. Ana Mínguez Corella6 November 2017 at 20:17

    Nice pictures Mike. Happy week..

    ReplyDelete
  3. David M. Gascoigne,12 December 2017 at 23:40

    Kudos to you for using the word "heronry." All too often I see "rookery" used for almost any group of colonial nesting birds, quite incorrectly, of course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike Attwood13 December 2017 at 10:38

      Thanks David, I try to be grammatically correct.

      Delete
  4. BnWCollections.com20 December 2017 at 23:04

    Nice article and thanks for sharing your knowledge. I really appropriate your views.

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    ReplyDelete

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Mike Attwood - Photographer

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About Me

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Evacuated during the second world war to a village in Yorkshire where I lived in the home of a good photographer for more than five years who taught me the basics and a great deal about nature. Well past retirement age I have been a wildlife photographer for more than 30 years. Red Kites have been my speciality for much of this period. I did spend several years snapping wheelchair athletes and organizing the British Road Race Championship. In the year 2000 I was awarded a distinction by the Royal Photographic Society for my portfolio on wheelchair athletes. Most of my pics are digital, using Sony cameras and Sigma lenses. I used to spend many weeks each year with friends in Wales which is close to the Elan Valleys where I got many of my raptor pics. I now get these pictures more closely to home, specially red kites and peregrines. I support my pension by selling my pics, cards, coasters, fridge magnets and key rings etc. at craft fairs, something I wish I had done much earlier in life. I give illustrated talks to clubs and societies on wildlife and other branches of photography that I have been involved in.