Oi! Get orf my feeder!

All too often, I look out of the window to see this:

At least this is a bit more amusing:

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

All things bright and beautiful

Though I've lived here for three and a half years now, this garden still amazes me. It's just not normal. Yellow Wagtails aren't meant to have a bath in your pond, and then finish their toilette while perching on your garden table! It's not normal and I'm glad it's not.

These digiscoped-through-double-glazing photos (and video) aren't up to much technically, but they capture the moment for me. There were so many interesting poses and postures. And look at the length of those hindclaws!

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Scarce Chaser? Too right...

Made my annual pilgrimage to Roxton today in search of Scarce Chasers, but they were nowhere to be seen (despite being out and about at Woodwalton Fen, not that far away)!

Banded Demoiselles

Red-eyed Damselfly (I think)

Seven-spot Ladybird

the River Great Ouse

Hawthorn and Ash

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

Corn Bunting song

Corn Bunting, Miliaria calandra by bogbumper

Rain/shine

Dark clouds developing tonight...

photo taken with Canon Powershot A640

Fat bird of the barley

They don't do a lot, Corn Buntings... Good beak though.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, Extender EF 1.4x II 

Chick chick chick chick chicken...

These lovely ladies are my Mum's new hens. From left to right, meet Marengo, Speckle and [the as yet-unnamed] The White One. They arrived on Thursday and have each produced an egg per day so far.

I can vouch for the quality of the eggs, having tasted a sponge cake made with three of them earlier today. Mmmm.

photos taken with iPhone 3G S

Cute baby birds

Spent the afternoon ringing Starling chicks.

The chicks were carefully removed from their nestbox. We fitted them with lightweight metal leg rings, weighed them and measured their legs (normally we'd measure birds' wings but they didn't have any feathers yet!). Then they were put safely back in their nest where the parents resumed feeding and brooding them.

We also collected faecal samples (that's poo to me and you) for later analysis of what they'd been eating.

Well, I think they're cute, and I didn't get crapped on once!!

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

Mr Cetti's Warbler

We seized the only opportunity for good Bank Holiday weather on Saturday. A visit for some ringing at Warren Villas was the way forward. We were pleasantly surprised to hear a Cetti's Warbler singing as we put up one of the nets. The sound got closer, and while we were securing one end of the net, a Cetti's Warbler appeared in the other end!

This is the first Cetti's Warbler to be ringed in the Ivel valley, the eighth ever to be ringed in Bedfordshire and the first for me (anywhere)!

We caught a nice selection of birds - Sedge, Reed and Garden Warblers, Blackcap, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Robin and Kingfisher.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D