Feeding Strategies at Lackford Lakes

 Food is obviously at a premium over the winter months. Gadwalls appear to be a gentle non-aggressive duck but they spend their time with coots eating what they bring up from the bottom and occasionally steal food directly from the coots – a behaviour known as kleptoparasitism. At the feeding station, the robin attacked anything that came at all close to feeding area - the tits managed to get some seed by flitting in very fast while the larger sized blackbirds risked the aggression. The low light levels meant I was shooting between 2000 and 12800 ISO so not great quality.

Heron and Coots in Late Afternoon Light

Heron and coots taken in late afternoon sunlight.  There were very large numbers of midges over the water - taken at 1/1000th, 1/60th then 1/30th showing multiple wing beats (flying rods). 

St Albans Nest Building Underway

I called in at the park in St Albans on my way back from talking in Tring the night before. Great to talk to a 'live' audience. The sun had just come above the trees giving beautiful but harsh light on the incoming Grey Heron as it went back and forth bringing twigs to the nest site. Only this one Heron was evident - hopefully there are others. The clouds then came up so the light was poor for the Magpie collecting nest material and the Coot guarding its nest site from a passing Moorhen.

High Water Levels at Welney

The water levels at Welney Ouse Washes are still very high so there were very few Whooper Swans around yesterday as there is no ground for them to graze but there was plenty of activity among the Mute swans, ducks and Coots to keep the camera happy. Here a few portraits in beautiful winter light.

Miscellany from Day Two in Majorca

A second day in the S'Albufera and a range of new species to photograph including Hoverflies  - in flight and feeding, Bees, Terrapin, Red Shield Bug, Chafers mating, Bee orchid and, happily, a Red-Crested Coot pair with three young. The Red-crested Coot is one of Europe's most threatened breeding birds. It was reintroduced into the S'Albufera along with other European sites and now appears to be doing well after a decline a couple of years ago.

 

 

Coot and Gull Behaviour in Changeable Weather

After all the recent bright sunny weather, yesterday saw a change and so my visit to St Albans to photograph Coots had intervals of sunshine, heavy cloud and even some rain at the end of the morning. In the duller conditions, it was impossible to portray the Coot's red eye. The Coots were fairly active with lots of chasing but only one fight and that during a rainstorm. There were lots of Black-Headed Gulls in the process of moulting from winter to summer plumage and often displaying their kleptoparasitc behaviour  towards the Coots waiting around to pinch any food that they brought up from the bottom. The gulls eat different food from the coots – gulls are carnivorous generally etc whereas the coots are mostly vegetarian,  so, presumably, the gulls aren’t actually stealing food the other birds would eat themselves.