Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

A quiet day.

I haven't had the chance to go out with the camera today, we have had visitors and I have not been feeling on top of the world, and as well of course, the Olympics have beene a big attraction.  I was having a look through some photographs searching my hard drives for a photo of Liam Tancock the World Record Backstroke swimmer who's Grandparents live opposite to me here in Exeter. When he came to visit we took the opportunity to congratulate him and we took photos of him in our garden. He is a  great ambassador for Britain, for British sport, British swimming and a great ambassador for the city of Exeter. I want to wish him all the best  for the Olympic 100mtrs Backstoke Final tomorrow. Anyway, as I was searching I came accross this picture taken on the beach in Townsville, Queensland Australia taken when we visited in May 2011....... a brilliant place.

Goldcrest - Regulus regulus

Goldcrest are a tiny species of insect eating birds.  Yesterday evening as I sat quietly in a wood just enjoying the ambience, I caught site of one feeding at the tops of the trees, As I was sat on the side of a hill I was at eye level with the tree tops and had an unusual view. The tiny bird was constantly on the move and at times flying up to "hawk" above the very top leaves  for gnats.  I was very patient and spent at least an hour tryin to get a photo.  Suddenly an opportunity presented itself and I managed a few very underexposed photos.  I was able to adjust the exposure when I ot them on the computor but 

This is a life-size close up showing what the birds was feeding on. They look like Crab Spider sp. I would guess that this is a female collecting food for a clutch of  chicks somewhere.  

Slow worm - Anguis fragilis

This is the latest image from my "Photos in a soft box" project. Slow Worms are in fact legless lizards. They are reasonably common here in Devon and there are not many years when I don't see at least one. I have them in the garden quite often and particularly when I had an active compose heap, a great place for them because of the generated warmth of rotting vegetation and the abundance of prey.

Even more jays

 

About to take off.

 

I was pleased with this..... almost.......except for the top of the head which I just missed!  I planned this shot by setting up two poles as perches and when I was sure that he was going to fly to the one nearest to me I pressed the shutter.  I had already pre-focused on a flower that I had placed half way between the two perches and then it was just a case of the shutter firing at the exact moment when the bird was passing through the in focus spot..

 

Here the bird jumps in the air before going down to the ground in search of peanuts.

 

Just a nice portrait!

 

The Jay and the wood mouse.

I've been saying for days that Jays are a prety nasty species.  This photo proves what I already knew. I have no idea how "she" caught the mouse, ( I'm sure it's the female of the pair), all I know is that she arrived on the log carrying it.  I suspect that the mouse was feeding on the spilled seeds and peanuts from under the feeders in front of my hide and was caught  unawares.  It was a real bonus for me, not so good for the mouse, but a real photo opportunity proving yet again that if yoy have the time to put in you can see something really special by showing lots of patience.  

Later on after flying away with it's meal, the male arrived to feed on the peanuts and again some great photo opportunities.

 

 

 

My Jay quest continues.

Back at the hazel-hide this evening I continued with my Jay quest.  Jays are known to be able to lift their crown feathes and form a crest but you don't often see it. I think this is the female and it was a surprise that she raised her crest like this. I really like the photo, a great image, perfect atmospheric lighting, lots of charachter and a great background. 

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you may be sarting to get a bit bored with Jays but they are an amazing bird, colourful, strong, very intelligent and intensely cruel. There's af few more days of Jays to come.  Kingfishers are just around the corner and thats going to be the next concentration.  In the meantime, I have been baiting the area around the feeding station with Rabbit.  As I arrived at the hide tonigh ta Buzzard was very close and I feel it wont be long before I start to get some Buzzard close ups.

 

From Saturday morning.

Birds in flight.

 

This bird  needs little introduction if you a European. It's a Robin  (Erithacus rubecula), not to be confused of course with the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) which is really a thrush of course and at least twice the size. The Robin could quite easily win a prize for Britain's most well loved bird. It's a confiding and friendly bird but in reality quite aggressive and never tolerant of another in it's territory, apart from it's mate in the breeding season. This is probably the best in-flight shot I have taken of one in spite of numerous attempts.

 

Then, I go and take another reasonable photo of one in flight. This time, the Nuthatch was defending it's space. Whilst Robins are aggressive to each other, Nuthatches are a strong little bird that can be very aggressive to other birds. At this feeding site on the edge of the wood, a pair of Robins hold a territory. The male is more inquisitive and visits regularly  to find food with a preference for sunflower hearts by the way.  I am quite certain that the female is sitting on eggs somewhere nearby on a second round and I know that they have already produced chicks because yesterday a young Robin arrived at the feeders. Incidentally, young Robin's do not have a Red Breast but are speckled. They acquire the red brest after their post juvenile moult  by the start of Autumn. I think it's quite interesting to note that female Robins are very secretive when they are breeding and even though I know there is a female somewhere nearby I rarely see her but I have seen the male feeding her a couple of times.

 

It was certainly a day for "flight" shots yesterday and my efforts are starting to pay off.  The bigger the bird the easier it is but what I am trying to achieve is close ups with a blured background, that's called the "bokah" by the way.  With a 500 lens to achieve that background effect, the subject is only in the frame for a fraction of the time and it is also a big challenge to focus on the bird to make sure that it is in focus.  Rather than follow the bird with the lens, I position the camera where I am expecting the subject to pass through and then fire the shutter on burst mode when the bird flies in.  Reflexes are important and any hesitation means that you have another long wait for the bird to arrive again. It's demanding but very exciting as well.

 

Jay series

 

I'm getting nearer to that perfect in-flight photo.  Success is dependant on really good light and today just for a few minutes the light was strong enough.  When the bird flew in, I was ready.

 

Here he is having just landed, not quite on the post but his wings have already been tucked away and he's grabbed a peanut.

 

Most of the nuts are demolished in seconds and he hesitates before devouring the last one.

 

He's finished the last nut so now nothing to keep him on the log and he prepares to fly off back to the safety of the wood.

 

Just before he flies off, he bends his body as you can see, allowing him to spring off from his legs just before he opens his wings, the photo is just a split second before take off. 

 

Th wettest day of the summer so far!

This was taken late in the evening yesterday, a very atmospheric image.  Today has been one of those rare days when the camera didn't even get out of the house, its just too wet with constant heavy rain all day long. I did visit the hazel-hide just to check the feeder and I sat watching the comings and goings. In the half hour that I watched I had visits from 7 species, all the usuals but a constant stream which was very interesting.  The first baby Robin put in an appearance and Great Tit visits totalled 49, probably a pir and a large clutch of newly fledged youngsters. 

This is an adult Great Tit who had somehow lost most of the feathers on it's head but they are growing back nicely. 

This Squirrel proof feeder is too good, and I laughed to myself while I watched him trying repeatedly to get at the food.

Photos from today including Swallows and Nuthatch

 

This is one of the Jay pair, l am quite sure that it is the female.  She is perched on a stout post that I hammered in to the earth about 10 feet from the feeding log and at exactly the same height and ditance from the hide.  I thought this plan through in quite some detail, I set up a situation that would allow me to photoraph them  in flight, and capture them flyng in sharp focus.  The plan was to tempt the Jays to fly across from one food source to the next following a straight line that I could predict and then with the camera pre-focused, capture  a great shot.  Well, it's coming along very nicely but still needs a bit of fine tuning. I worked out that the Jays would prefer to fly to the more familiar feeding log first, before then flying over to the other one for more food and thats exactly the way it worked out.  I put 4 or 5 peanuts on the log and the same amount o the post and then after retreating to the hide, focused the camera on a spot just to the left of the post.  The Jay duly obliged by flying to the nuts on the log and quickly saw them off, then, still hungry she flew over to the post where more nuts were waiting.  I love it when a plan works out, well almost because I hadn't compensated for the way she would alight to the top of the post, not flying in a straight line but swooping low before landing on the top after flying upwards.  A failure [photographically)success because she was only half in the frame, but at least I knew that my plan had worked and my now "trained" Jays were flying exactly where I wanted them. There is quite a gap between feeding visits so all in all, during the afternoon they came in a couple of times and I almost had some success each time.  Then later on in the evening I tried again and this time I was slightly more successful, but again not quite because with wing extended I couldn't get the flying bird fully in the frame.... but all most! 

Its now going to be just a matter of time before  I sort this out and get some perfect photos.

 

 

By the time I took this it was getting later in the day and there was not quite enough light to capture the action properly.  You can see though that the Jay is flying up to land rather than in  a straight line, obviously an easier manoeuvre for them.

 

This morning at the stables the Swallows were performing really well and I get some really good close ups as the adults came down to gather hay and grass for their nests.

 

A pretty bird when you get close to them.

 

Nests are made of mode but lined with feathers and straw.

 

This ragged bird is in fact a young Nuthatch in moult, it looks more tidy  than yesterday when I saw it so I expect in a week or so it will be a very smart looking bird indeed in it's new attire.

 

The majority of the wings and tail are already quite smart.

 

 

 

A couple of great images from Florida

Photo: Geoff Marmon

One of my favourite places in the whole world, and I have visited well over 100 countries, is Florida..... we all know where that is so I won't ramble on.  The wildlife opportunities are endless with wonderful birding opportunities, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, not to mention gorgeous butterflies and other insects. It's incredible that very close to densely populated urbanisations, there are vast wilderness areas such as the Everglades, still under pressure because of drainage and damage to the water table, but teaming with life.

The Snook - Centropomus undecimalis is an aggressive predatory marine fish that has been recorded at 4 feet long and more than 50lb.  All large Snook are female, they change sex when they they reach a certain weight and size. The photo above was sent to me by my Nephew Geoff a Floridian by birth who is a chip off the old block, a lover of wildlife and the outdoors with as much passion for it  as myself. You can see the fish  iis in shallow water amomgst the roots of a mangrove proving how importan this habitat is as an environent  and nursery.  Its quite unusual to get close enough to a Snook for a photograph like this.  A close loo at the phot will reveal a small Sergeant-major fish proving what a good habitat this is.  It was an interesting day for Geoff who also picked up this Turtle sp. from the side of the road, not sure of the species but  seems like a Re Eared Terrapin.  These freshwater Turtles leave the water to lay their eggs in sand close by and is probably the reason that Geoff saw it. The eggs hatch in the early months of the following year and I have been fortunate enough on several ocassions to have seen tiny, wild Red-eared Terrapins making their way towrds the water from their nest site.

Photo: Geoff Marmon

..........and while I mention turtles,  on the edge of the dunes and  smack in the middle of a very popular holidy beach, close to my sisters house, is a Loggerhead Turtle's nest, roped off and protected.  The eggs are due to hatch any day now.  Incubation is around 45 days and that time has already elapsed. I hope to be able to let you know if the nest is successful in the next day or so.

More Jay shots from today.

I spent even more hours in the "Hazel-hide" in two sessions today, trying really hard to capture a special photograph.  Things are coming along nicely, again I had both male and female Jays, not actually feeding together but they were within minutes of each other suggesting that they were loosely moving around the wood together. I moved  the feeding log back just a couple of feet  which meant that I could capture all of the bird in the frame of the camera. I have been formulating a plan to get a photo in full flight which I am sure will work well, that's my quest for the next week or so. I am going to position another feeding post/log at the same hight as the other but 10 foot apart. I am sure that if I put a few peanuts on one log, and more on the other, I should be able to get the bird to fly in a straight "flight-path" from one log to the next  giving me the chance to pre-focus on the flight line and photograph the bird in flight. 

I try to make my day wothwhile by learning something new, or discovering a small piece of behaviour and today I managed to sperate both Jays visibly so that when one was in front of me I could tell which was the male and which was the female. The bird has a very nasty beak which has a slight 'overshot" hook, quite a noticeable feature.The female has a smaller head, smaller and more rounded beak and a less aggressive look all around, These photos  show the difference.

 

The male showing the small hook on the book, just an anomoly of this individual.

The female, no hooked beak and a softer look about her.

 

I love Jays

My quest to photograph the Jays continued yesterday, I had mentioned that I wasn't certain if the bird that I see regularly was in fact more than one and yesterday that was confirmed as two, a matching pair and impossible to tell apart, arried together. I am expecting to see juveniles any doay now as well, I  am pretty sure that there is a nest somewhere near.

 

Its interesting to see that peanuts are the prefered choice before the day old chicks.

 

But when all the nuts have been taken the chicks are the main course.

 

This is an interesting photo, in the rain as you can see. Jays have the ability to raise their crown feathers to a crest, they do this to show aggression or when the are threatened. I think he had an idea that I was in the hide, perhaps he heard the shutter on the camera but he stared in my direction and stayed still, holding that pose befor he flew off. He wasn't that worried though because it wasn't long before he returned.

 

 

The day so far

 

An adult Swallow at the stables

The morning session was a more disapointing than normal due to the appearance of the female Sparrowhawk again who flew past me at speed pursued from the barns by all the Swallows and Martins.  This time I could see that she had made a kill for certain, she carried a young bird in her talons.  This had a bit of an effect on the Swallows  as you expect. Up until that point they had been very happy too perch on the low fences.When  I came home for a break and coffee I had a quick look at a few photos taken and the nicest was the adult Swalow above.  Now for Jays back in the wood......... check back later.

 

That Jay portrait as promised.

 

So many elements came together to make this picture a good one. Its a great subject,  the light is interesting and the way it has caught the birds eye is very appealing.

I said this morning, or was it yesterday  that I had a plan to get some good portraits of the Jays from my private hide so, as the day developed I thought the plan through.  My morning was spent conducting my Brass Band playing hymns to accompany a Seafarers service in the village of Lympstone........ don't worry, there is a wildlife conection. Firstly I am excited to report that Swifts are using the roof-space of our  Band Centre, a previous Methodist Church dating back to the late 18th century when it was a sail makers premises.  Then as we performed, (you can still look around when you conduct),  I watched the House Martins  coming and going to their nests under the eaves of the cottages right next to the  sailing club.  Greenfinches were singing...... if thats what you call it......... and it was frankly, a glorious scene with the estuary spread out in front, the first sunny day for ages and the band playing beautifuly as usual.  I love that band and the people in it.

 

Then after the stress of watching Andy Murray, hard luck mate..... I packed myself off to the edge of the wood.  I took a bird table with me, which was part of the plan. I placed it on the edge of the wood in front of the hazel-hide and then plonked the feeding log on top This lifted everything up to 5 feet or so and away from the distracting background. I loaded it with peanuts and retreated back to the hide to wat it out. Well as usual, not a long wait, suddenly I caught sight of him just on the edge, having a check if it was safe, he did this two or three times and then he must have thought, yes it seems safe and there he was. The light was great and I had the camera set up for portraits so I was hoping for one or two good shots and thats the way it turned out. More to come though,

A few photographs of Kingfishers.

Having gone on and on yesterday about whether I consider myself a photographer.......It's just a word of course....... I  take pictures when I can so some would give me that tag, surely this is an insult to all those professionals out there. However from time to time I like to look back at the pictures that I have taken.  Some of my favourites have been Kingfishers, who doesn't love this family of birds.  I would like to photograph as many species of Kingfisher as I can, they are all beautiful and photogenic. I can remember the instant that I took all these photographs, one of the attractions of getting some good images. I hope you enjoy comparing the different birds.

On the nearby brook, Kingfishers breed and it is a relatively easy job with forethought, planning and patience to get a few nice pictures and to watch them at close quarters.  This is a female, last winters resident.  This year the nest failed having been flooded out at the crucial moment on two different occasions.

 

This is the territory holder from the previous winter, a lovely confiding individual who I watched for countless hours. Sticklebacks made up most of his prey but he fed on Minnows as well as Bullheads, Loach and a Newt!

You've got to love a Kingfisher.

 

This a Forest Kingfisher -  Todiramphus macleayii, what a glorious name, the second scientific name referes to the man who named it, Scotish scientist Macleay. The shot was taken on the grave of a 2nd World War Soldier who's remains are in Townsville Cemetary, Queensland, Australia. I visited there  in May 2011. A species that feeds on  a variety of prey, reptiles and insects as well as fish. I saw them on several ocassions in coastal/beach locations.

This is a Sacred Kingfisher - Todyramphus sanctus, what a lovely name as well, but an equally lovely bird, again photographed in Townsville Australia. This species feeds well away from water and takes small reptiles and insects, this one was photographed in the garden of the house that we stayed in for the whole of May 2011.

 

A Belted Kingfisher - Meagaceryle alcyon photographed in a carpark in the Everglades, Florida USA. This species is a large Kingfisher in comparison to the previous ones, about the size of a Blackbird.  They do feed in the same manner as the species that we are familiar with in he UK but my experience suggests that they are more likely to hover  above water as they search for prey.

About Jays

First of all, a bit about the photo above, it is interesting because of the way it was achieved.  It's ridiculously wet again today but I really like to get out regardless and once I was in my "hazel-hide" this morning, even though it was persisting down, I was reasonable dry and I sat back to watch the comings and goings.  I am falling in love with the Jays, they are "top-dogs" in the wood. They are intelligent and cocky and they dominate the scene, quietly and mostly unseen, only showing themselves when they want to be seen.   I am totally convinced that they are somewhere watching me, even waiting for me as I walk up to the wood and the hide.  I have been placing peanuts, only enough to last my session and also the  day-olds. The reason for just a few nuts is so that the birds are expecting them but not over-fed  meaning that they should come to find them once they have seen me arrive, well thats the plan and it works well.  Once I take up my position in the hide it's not long before a Jay arrives, usually heralded by an alarm from a Blackbird. They seem to know what a threat a Jay is.  I have learnt that if I hear this Blackbird  alarm, then stand by, a Jay is on the way!  Sometimes though, you can hear  him or her calling with that characteristic cackle or grunt used as  an alarm call but also to just let everybody know he's here, and thats the way it was this morning. I want to take  action and in-flight shots so I need a fast shutter speed to achieve this.  So this morning I  adjusted the ISO to 3200. If you take photos then you will know that this is a ridiculously high ISO setting. Portraits with settings like this are never the best but it's a nice image all in all. My quest now is  to try to get the very best Jay pictures I can and I have a plan. 

A comment was made about me recently along with 54 others mostly saying pretty nasty things, but one which I almost liked but at the same time I thought, "What gives anyone the right to make comments about me" this chap said (about me), "This guy sets out to take good pictures" Yes I do, but I still don't consider myself a photographer, you just point the camera in the right direction, make sure that you have it set  up properly and in focus and then press the shutter, thats about all I know about photography in a nutshell.  People also ask me regularly, "Are you self-taught?" What is there to learn, I just point the camera in the right direction......etc etc etc.  I say again, I am an amateur naturalist and I just  use my camera to record what I see.  I love the expression that I picked up from somewhere, "You can't call yourself a violinist because you own a fiddle! As a musician who has a Diploma in performance from the Royal Academy of Music, an ARCM, that appeals to me. So when you look at the picture above and you think, Oh that picture is a bit soft (meaning not excessively sharpened un-naturally in Photoshop), so what, it's my picture recording the Jay (and Joy),  in the best possible way,  from my Hazel Hide, nothing more or less.

I plan to raise the feeding log that you can see above as high as I can to bring it up to eye level which will mean that I can have a more diffused and blurred background, this  will allow the subject to "pop" out of the frame without distractions from behind, Watch this space.  

A great morning at the stables

Here's the Cuckoo from mid-June that I enjoyed watching so much. The perch he is on was originally 40 or 50 feet in front of me.  I  noticed that he liked to perch on a dead Hawthorn laying on the grass opposite so I decided to  put an alternative for him to land on.  Eventually after several hours of watching over a few days, he decided to use it. Then when he left I  moved it a foot nearer and then on every visit, I moved it a foot nearer until, after 15 days or so it was just where I wanted it... right in front and in perfect light.

It would be hard to describe the excitement and feeling when eventually he landed in front of me. It took me 4 years of thinking and planning to get  to this point and there he was at last.  I've called him "my bird" a few times and taken some real stick from people for doing that but when you have spent so much time with an individual bird, watched him, studied him, learned his behaviour and kept records of when he was there and when he wasn't and how his behaviour  changed depending on the weather, thats bbound to be the way you feel.  If it was wet and windy he reacted in a totally different way, when it was bright and sunny that dictaed a whole different behaviour. So yes, I felt possesive about the bird but as well, I was really happy to tell people about him. I even took people with me to see him and got wet eyed when I saw they were excited to see him.  On other ocassions I left my seat to creap down to the car park to show peole the bird and they were thrilled to watch him with me.  It is my true and honest opinion that the bird was constantly at this site because I had got him used to a human presence, I may be wrong but I think I am correct.

A few photos from the stables today.

Swallow collecting mud.

 

A baby Swallow begging to be fed. I just adore this photo. The baby swallows having recently left the safety of their nests inside the stables  perch on the fences waiting to be fed by their parents.  Watching them over the last few days has made me realise  how important the stables are for many species of birds. Firstly the indoor stables provide perfect nest sites but the feeding opportunities are perfect as well.  The paddocks provide a great food supply with insects atracted to the manure (which is incidentally, constantly cleared by really hard working, mostly girls.) As well as the Swallows and Martins there are Pied Wagtails, Goldfinch, and Greenfinch.  House Sparrows nest in the stables as well. The large puddles also attract the birds as a place to drink and bathe and also for mud which the hirundines (thats swallow type birds), use to make and repair their nests. Yesterday on two ocassions the birds went crazy mobbing, firstly a Magpie who was on the roof  with an egg in it's mouth and then a female Sparrowhawk swooped over the roof followed by a mob of birds. My impression was that he had managed to grab a bird as he zoomed accross the paddocks.

 

House Martin collecting mud to repair the nest.  I was struck by how blue they are when you get close enough to see. Swallows have more than a hint of blue on their backs but not as intense as a House Martin who with their contrasting white fronts and rumps are really attractive.  They have a very big eye for the size of the bird which makes them very pretty.  Another interesting feature is the feathers on the legs which come right down to the toes

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Jays by the wood.

 

A nice Jay from Terry's (thankfully) private wood this lunchtime.

I am trying to ignore the vitriol and nastiness from a tiny minority of people. Its very easy to sit at home in front of a computor and type comments in an unthinking way so after being innitially quite upset and having listened to advice from  my manny close friends I now realise that it's it's best just to ignore it. I had my say, I still think that it was wrong for those two to have "invaded" my space so to speak, they dont agree and that's something that I will have to accept.  One comment now even says grudgingly that my blog is good but 'high percentage of the photographs are soft" meaning not artificially sharpened I suppose, I smiled to myself about that.  As I never set out to be a photographer in the first instance, it's good that other photographers are taking an interest. Any way enough of this pathetic situation.

Yesterday was interesting, I went to buy some cam-netting to build a hide on the edge of the wood but they were temporarily out of stock. So when I went back to the wood I set about building a hide using hazel sticks which was very cathartic.  As it took shape I got more and more in to it and eventually a natural woven structure began to take shape. The hazel sticks still had leaves and these were included to add to the very natural look.  It was very satisfying when it was finished.  I went to search for more haze and l it was so well concealed and blended in so perfectly that I couldn't find it again.  It gave me a real buzz when the birds started to arrive.   Mostly Coal Tits but the Jay came for a free feed and very pleasingly, the first Nuthatch at this set up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House Martins in flight again.

Every now and again I take a photo that is almost the shot of a life time. This is one of them.  I just missed the whole bird by an inch, if the camera shutter had opened 1/3000 earlier than this would have been the best photograph that I have taken. As it is, it gives me the impetus to carry on trying to capture the Martins in flight as they come in to gather mud to repair their nests.  I took several half decent shots today, patience is  the key.  I sat waiting for the sun to shine and then hopefully for the Martins to come and collect mud. Eventually, first one and then another came down followed by several during the next few minuts or so. 

Just before I came home all hell let loose with a cacophony of excited  twittering, a Sparrowhawk was flying over and it seemed like every Swallow and Martin in the Stable yard responed to a rallying call to see off the predator.

House Martin - Delichon urbicum

I have always like House Martins and found them very hard to photograph, particularly in flight. It seems that it is a good year for them because I have seen more this year. Yesterday's post was all about Swallows and I was hoping to photograph more of them today but the weather has made it difficult.  At lunchtime there was a 45 minute break in the rain so I went back to the stables and immediately saw a few House Martins flying down to collect mud for their nests, a great opportunity presented itself.  It was extreme but I litereally lay down on a grass verge surrounding the muddy paddock and waited for them to return. When they did I snapped off some photos and a couple worked out well but due to the bad weather and light it was hard to get a really special shot....... but almost!  If only it would stop and I could go back and try for more. This is the first half decent photo of a House Martin and a new species to add to my Gallery of Devon Bird Species which you can see here.

When you look at this little "swallow species" you can see what a pretty bird it is. A delicate blue on the back and the head.  You can seperate them from all the other swallow and Martin species commonly seen in the UK, by the bright white rump.  I remember picking up a House Martin from the floor years ago and was amazed at the size of the mite that crawled out of the feathers.  House Martins are particularly known for the parrasites that they play host to,  even having a mite named after it..... Ceraophyllus hirundinis the House Martin Mite.

A baby Swallow being fed.

Words can't add much to this picture. As was the case yesterday, the baby Swallows having recently started to fledge,perch on the posts and fence waiting for the parent to fly in and feed them.  This all takes place in a split second and you need to be on the ball to capture the event.

Baby Swallows

A baby Swallow at the Stables this morning.

Young Swallows just fledged.

As you may be aware, I always try with my photos to put the viewer right there amongst the action and to try and photograph in a way that shows something that perhaps happens so quickly that it goes unnoticed.  This series of  a young swallow being fed by its parent is one of those moments. It  is something that I have seen very regularly and when I knew that Swallows were nesting  in numbers nearby at the local riding stables, I was looking forward to them leaving the nest.  I even predicted where the youngsters would perch and wait for the parent to come and feed them.  I have been visiting the stables regularly just to see how the nests were progressing and I knew that I would get the chance sooner or later. I scanned the fences constantly this afternoon and suddenly there was a young swallow waiting patiently. Using one of the posts as a rest for the camera, I took a few photos and then waited for the parent to bring food and as the youngster was fed I managed a few shots.

 

The parent flies in to feed the baby Swallow.

 

 

 

Still in flight the parent stuffs food down the throat.

 

This is all happening in a fraction of a second.

 

The food is almost delivered.

 

The parent wheels away.

 

The baby waits for more food.

 

....and begs again as the parent flies above.