Waiting for Spring...Still!

Spring seems to be making a reluctant appearance this year, as so far, does the wildlife.  This weekend, much like last, was cold with temperatures not even reaching double figures and a trip to the woods found an erie lack of sightings of activity though the birds were very vocal.  Two brief sightings were all to show from four hours of looking and waiting for Roe Deer and only one brief photo opportunity.  Probably the most common animal, certainly mammal about, were Grey Squirrels.  Apart from one that seemed interested in me, most seemed to be ‘sunbathing’, stretched out on parts of the trees in the sunshine, presumably trying to get warmed up.  The second image below looks like a Squirrel coming down a tree, but in fact it remained motionless there for a number of minutes.  Strange that it would do this upside down.

Elsewhere there were a couple of young rabbits bounding about and a more cautious adult making the occasional appearance.  The best photo opportunity came in the form of a couple of Rats who, nervous at first ended up being co-operative subjects for my camera, if not very glamorous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Little Grebe, Big Stomach

A rare break in the weather with some rare sunshine at the weekend and an opportunity to get out with my camera.  Despite it being the later half of April and despite there being sunshine, it was cold – around two degrees when I started out.  There was little signs of Spring, the kind you would expect by now, just some Red Kites doing some acrobats whilst vying for the attention of a female.  On the ground or rather water, there was this little chap seemingly doing very well fishing.

It was going back and forth from my position, diving down with nearly every time, catching a stickleback fish.  On occasion it would catch one that was just a little too big to swallow first time around so it would be bashed against the water, repositioned, another attempt to down it then often dropping it where the fish would then get away or end up back in its mouth and swallowed.

A Kingfisher flew by during all of this and I thought you don’t know what you’re missing!  I wasn’t exactly in an ideal position to get decent photographs so the images aren’t great.  It was in amongst the reeds most of the time and conveniently had its back to me or just slight away so the light didn’t catch the face, but the pictures manage to tell the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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