the garden!!

exciting stuff been happening lately. yesterday i heard the first frog singing and today we have our first frogspawn. great stuff happening in the pond and still masses of frogs around.

however, this morning i went to have a look at the birdfeeders, just a casual glance, like you do!, when i spotted the rear end of a bird hidding behind a feeder. i queried myself "hmmmm, could that be a siskin" and just by majic a flock of goldfinch came down and with them were 2 siskin. great stuff. unfortunatly and unidentifeied bird of prey spooked them off as i set up the camera. however i am still waiting and watching right now. overall there were 2 adult birds plus the bird behind the feeder which also became apparent a juvenile siskin. a great morning

the pond 8.00 tonight

a mating pair


a bed of duckweed

this was the only frog in the top pond. it was a real monster

8 frogs, 8 whole frogs were in the pond this evening mating. it was a real spectatcle to see all those frogs. the only downside ios that last year about 5 were found dead at the bottom of the pond. lets hope not for a similar calamity this year. obviously thought lets not focus on the bad side. all these frogs was just incredible. and whats more, despite the darkness, i managfed to get some, in my opinion, really good pictures.

troubles abrewin'

oh heck!
having seen the extent of the problem in bridghnorth i now have found one of those squatters in my very own house. incase you havent already guessed, its one of there ear harlaquin ladybirds.
what can we do? is their no stopping their never ending march?

the dipper at hardcastle craggs

what more need be said

harcdcastle craggs-yesterday in the frosty sunshine

plenty of stuff happening at hardcastlecraggs yesterday morning.

a long tailed tit, only one seen yesterday


a treecreeper. this thing gave me runnaround agreat big tree, but i got him in the end


a heron that flew over. it had tried fishing in a frozen pond but obviously had had no succsess

a few goldcrests about. my first this year which is good considering the harsh winter

a buzzard. there were actually two there but i accidentaly deleted the picture with two buzzards so you will just have to take my word for it.

also a grey wagtail on the road outside the craggs.

besides that there was also.......2 dippers, but i will have to post the pictures later because there were so many....

blue tit

great tit

chaffinch

robin and all the other woodland birds were out in force too

saturday afternoon, 5.00

was on the way to a freinds birthday party when suddenly i noticed loads of birds on manor heath. i asked my dad to stop and although we had no bins' we could tell that they were redwings. it soon became apparent that bins were not going to be needed as the birds readily came up close. i could tell they were laughing at me for not having the camera. what was also fascinating was the sheer numbers. i would have said that there were about 50 all in the trees. there was one which came super close and whats more is that it stayed around for a bit. when all the other birds flew off due to a magpie, the closes birds stayed put. it was really special to see.

ogden this morning-in the fog!

a black headed gull, flying over water, but where does the water actually end?!?!


the female goldeneye near the duck feeding area.


just thought that i would include it, no reason why


the male goldeneye by the duck feeding area

first thing this morning we went to ogden. i had heard about the goldeneye pair and a teal pair but unfortunatly i could only find the goldeneye. luckily though the goldeneyes were very near to the duck feeding area allowing me to get some decent shots.
the only other bird of any interest were two long tailed tits i noticed. i failed to get any pictures but hey, thats the way it goes.
also four common gulls out on the reser

walking home

2 msitle thrushes flew over me when i came out of bradshaw park

pink feet over the house

saw these four geese fly over the house this mrning. i managed to get my camera as they did a loop-da-loop and landed in a private pond. i think these are the same birds that matt bell had yesterday over by todmorden.

ogden, a long time ago (hence the reser being frozen)

a frozen reservoir made things difficult for the ducks, even their feeding area was frozen. otherwise very little in the way of birdlife.