Common birds at Warnham in the sun. Lovely!

As the bank holiday was to be sunny, Lynne and I went to Warham Local Nature Reserve for a walk and so Lynne could try out her new camera. We did the circuit of the lake, the woods, the reedbed and we spent a good deal of time at the Woodpecker hide where the staff had obviously put out a feast of birdseed for the holiday! This attracted not only the common garden type birds but also one or two others.

Around the lake we saw herons at the nest with young high in a tree (quite far for photos), coots, mallard, pheasant and a mute swan that was chasing everything that moved!

Heron with 2 young

Heron takes flight

Don't cross this mute swan!

Coot clapping wings.

Mallard not quite sleeping.

Pheasant cock

 

All the common birds came to the feeding station. Was it bad of me to hope that the sparrowhawk would come down and take one of the chaffinches? It didn't happen.

Blackbird with juicy grub

Chaffinch - female behind

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Great spotted woodpecker

Great tit

Greenfinch

Long-tailed tit

Magpie on the prowl.

Wood pigeon. Don't you just love them!

 There were also a few characters who do not normally go to feeding stations, such as:

Reed bunting - female.

Reed bunting - male

 The most surprising bird to appear was a Mandarin duck drake in a tree! Later he too came down to feed.

Mandarin duck - male

Mandarin duck - male