Thursday 4 June 2020

More things with wings from Harefield

Some of my photos were taken on Sunday and Monday when the weather was considerably better.

The last two days I have spent mainly indoors watching a lot of the garden birds from the comfort of the loft room window. Wood Pigeons are constantly calling and mating, Collared Doves are nesting in the conifer, juvenile Blackbirds keep appearing from nowhere, the Wrens look to be on their second brood but the showiest, and the most entertaining birds have been the Great Spotted Woodpeckers. 

I've counted two adult males coming into the back gardens. One of them is feeding at least three juveniles, possibly four. The other appears to either be on it's own or his own juveniles haven't fledged yet. Surprisingly I have not seen an adult female for a few days now. 

I've watched the juveniles flying around and trying to land awkwardly, watched them be aggressive to the smaller birds but hide from the larger ones, but I've yet to get a photo of more than one in the same frame. There does seem to be a bit of sibling rivalry as they often chase each other too. 

I hope you're sitting comfortably as here is a complete overload of Great Spotted Woodpecker photos. The juveniles have the distinctive red caps.....














At St Marys churchyard I had been watching a pair of Nuthatches feeding their young. The photos below were taken on Saturday. On my next visit on Monday morning, the young had already fledged and the nest was empty....






There is a lovely little lane that leads from one end of the church to the main road and it is surrounded by scrub. Amongst the singing Blackcaps, Robins and Wrens I keep hearing the scratchy call of a Common Whitethroat, and finally managed to photograph it on Monday. It's 'patch' is in the middle of a large expanse of scrub so I couldn't creep any nearer...


Hopefully I'll get a clearer photo soon, but for now I'm happy watching the Great Spotted Woodpeckers. 

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