Unusual Bird Feeding Pictures

Isn't the Internet wonderful !

In terms of Wildlife photographers there are many excellent practitioners out there.  I have recently been entertained by 2 excellent photographers on the Olympus UK e-Group forum who have posted fascinating pictures of bird feeding behaviour

with many thanks to Peter and Peter I would like to ask if there is anyone who can comment on how usual or otherwise the following feeding behaviours are.

The first is from Peter Drury who is based in Portsmouth and posts wonderful wildlife pictures in his on-line gallery

The selection in question was entitled  Duck! There's a flying crab!  and can be seen in the e-group in detail where Peter explains how the Mallard picked the crab up and refused to give it away despite being mobbed by the Black Headed Gull.

As Peter says "The normal food of a Mallard is small aquatic invertebrates, seeds, roots, shoots and grain. A crab hardly falls into any of these categories.Comments welcome as always"

The second fascinating picture I have seen recently was from "PeterBirder" from Braintree in Essex who also posts excellent wildlife pictures in his on-line gallery

Peter posted a fascinating series of pictures showing a male Blackbird trying to feed a whole mouse to his offspring

Once again the full thread of pictures can be seen on the Olympus e-group

This Peter commented that "My take on all this is that the adult is inexperienced and possibly a "single dad" as we haven't seen the female or the third youngster that were around last week. I suspect that the mouse was killed by one of the local cats and "dad" saw this as an opportunity as worms are in short supply as "Andym" has suggested. I think that during the day one of the larger local birds, possibly the Sparrowhawk has taken the mouse".

Once again he would love to hear from anyone who has any experience of such behavior - please feel free to leave a comment here and we will pass it on to them

Their pictures and comments are re-posted here with their very kind permission permission and they retain full copyright over both

Pond Life - an almost alien beauty

It's nice this time of year to get up close and personal with the damp patch in the back garden we call the pond. This little beauty of a flower, oft overlooked, is a Bogbean.

Butterfly Sighting

Last Saturday, (2.4.11), whilst excavating a new vejetable plot, I was delighted to see a Male Brimstone gently floating across the garden. This was the first Brimstone we've recorded in Morganstown since we moved into the area in 2008, so a first for us.

Compensation for the backache from digging out all the rubble 'kindly' left by the house builder.Now I've just got to get rid of it!

Phill Blanning

Buzzards and Butterflies

Glorious weather today enticed me to find the cross country route to Pentyrch from home.

Accompanied by soaring Buzzards and constant birdsong.I had glimpses of two Butterflies, the first I've seen this year, but the brief glimpse was not enough to identify them.

Passed large clumps of Primroses, abundant Celandines and a few Violets.

Crossed a large field with gambling newborn Lambs and wonderful views of the Garth across the valley and eventually entered Pentyrch.

I headed for the Lewis Arms to quench my thirst which was when the realization hit me that my pockets were empty!

A great walk which I intend repeating, but next time with some cash in my pocket!

Phill Blanning

Beware - Wild Daffodils Approaching

From one of our members

Here are two snaps I took on my 'phone of  Wild Daffodils (Pseudo Narcissus Lobularis) at Coed y Bwl Wood, Castle Upon Alun, last Sunday.  They are not yet in their full glory, but the banks should be ablaze within the next fortnight.

Elizabeth.Morgan

Sounds like a good idea for a walk to me

Regards
Andy

Signs of Spring

Noticed Dog's Mercury for the first time today, at the edge of our local Beech Wood in Morganstown. The Woodland floor here is rapidly greening up as the Ramsons push through.

Whilst on the opposite side of the road alongside, Pugh's Garden Centre .was a 'line' of Scarlet Elf Cup running along an old tree root.

Also spotted a few Celandines over the last few days.

Sightings in the City

From Phill Blanning one of our very active members...

Hi Andy,

a couple of things for the Blog.

Last weekend I was walking past the Morganstown allotments heading home, and found myself walking alongside a young Hedgehog. Completely unfazed by my presence. I watched him snuffling about for a while making sure he didn't stray into the road. But he wandered off into the allotments.

I wonder if he'd been woken early from hibernation by disturbance in the allotments.

Secondly, the Peregrines are back at the City Hall. I was practically buzzed by, presumably a courting pair, on Monday as I walked past the Law Courts.

Cheers

Phill

So remmber to put your hard hats on in the city centre and mind out for heyghoge underfoot

Regards

Andy

Sign of Spring

The first frogspawn in our pond in Dinas Powys this morning.

Otters in Cardiff

We were pleased to receive this email from one of our members (Pauline Peregrine) recently who took a walk in Easrern Cardiff

"I don't know if you keep records of sightings - but would like to tell you that we saw an otter in the River Rhymney yesterday!  Clearly, I don't want to be too specific on the location for obvious reasons!  We were delighted to see the Otter - closest sighting we've ever had!"

The simple answer is yes we do like to keep records especially of unusual sightings and we would love to tell you about more of them here so we encourage people to let us know and also possibly record them directly with SEWBrec via their recording form at http://sewbrec.org.uk/recording-form.page

We know that the SEWBrec team keep in touch with information from the society so if you prefer to just tell us that's not problem

In the event of finding a dead otter, please telephone 08708 506506 (Environment Agency) and ask for your nearest conservation / biodiversity officer. You will be asked for the location of the otter and some other basic information.

The Cardiff Otter project investigate dead otters to determine cause of death and how that relates to their lifestyles. You can read more about such at the Cardiff Otter project website http://www.otterproject.cf.ac.uk/

Regards

Andy