Thursday 4 August 2011

Birds and other beasties at Rodden Nature Reserve

This is the first year that I've been able to get proof of breeding for our pair of Reed Buntings at the Reserve. This male was in the process of feeding the young bird with its back to the camera. It's a shame I didn't get a decent shot of the actual feeding, but you can't have it all!

Here's the young bird waiting for some more food to be brought!
Another bird I was pleased to get proof of breeding for is the Winter Wren. This is the only wren we get in Britain and it is widespread and common. There were 5 young birds waiting for their parents to bring food to them. I managed to get three in one photo in the end.

If you enlarge the photos, you can still see the fluffy tufts on their heads and the baby gape is still evident.





Another young bird I managed to capture was this Blue Tit. It's the same bird in both photographs but you can see the young Blue Tit plumage better in the second photo.



We have sheets of corregated iron put down in various places around the Reserve and I always take a peek underneath to see what is about. Here is a Short-tailed Vole (probably the most common mammal on our Reserve). You can see the reason for its name in this photo!

Last but not least, is this Common Toad under one of the iron sheets, which also seem to be doing well on our Reserve.

There'll be more from Rodden Reserve soon.