Screened....

A day at home at last, catching up with some of the routine tasks that unfortunately don't miraculously disappear when you're very busy! And processing my photographs from the fieldwork yesterday!!

I took the dogs out early again - they've decided this is an excellent idea and work better than an alarm clock! Since I've been searching for blips I've become much more observant, and now have quite a detailed knowledge of the whereabouts of many of the breeding birds on my regular route including song thrush, bullfinch, wren, reed warbler, sedge warbler and mute swan.

This mute swan is sitting on a nest at the eastern end of the Electricity Cut. She and her mate have nested here for several years, and are known to all the local walkers, as the nest only a couple of metres from the path. Early in the season the nest seems very exposed, but it gradually becomes more screened by the surrounding reeds, which form the out of focus frame of this image.

This is a very succesful pair of swans. Last year they raised eight cygnets to teenage-hood, and this year she's sitting on at least seven eggs. The swan population along the river has increased dramatically over the years, and I know of at least three other nests close by. But this is the only pair that I consider to be old friends.

I had a hard time choosing my blip today - the swan was nearly ousted by a pair of mallards who were using the newly pollarded willows as a lookout - something I've not seen before. I also got a record shot of a common tern with an extremely large fish in its mouth. I didn't see whether it managed to swallow it, but I couldn't see how it would fit in its stomach!

I'm not really keeping up very well with commenting at the moment - but I am trying to look at as many journals as I can, and will try to catch up towards the end of the week. Off to bed now, as I have a busy day tomorrow in some hay-meadows near Oxford!

PS Other pictures from my walk can be seen here.