Heron's Tale

 It has been a delight watching a pair of herons at Paxton build their nest, incubate and then bring up 3 youngsters. They are not yet fledged so fingers crossed for them. The image sheet sows the dates and certainly support the facts on heron breeding below. It is also interesting the way the colour palette turns from reddish winter (autumn) tones to springtime green as the leaves come out 

 Grey Herons typically take about one to two weeks to build their nests. Nest building is primarily carried out by the female, with the male bringing materials. A female grey heron lays 3 to 5 eggs per clutch,  at intervals of about 48 hours. Both parents share the responsibility of incubating the eggs, which lasts about 25 days. Incubation often begins with the first egg laid, leading to asynchronous hatching, where chicks may hatch at different times. Both parents feed the chicks, which fledge (develop feathers necessary for flight) at around 7 to 8 weeks old. 

Barnwell Park Birds

Some of the birds that we photographed on Sunday at Barnwell Park. The Goldcrest was very confiding and occasionally hopped into a sunny patch for a portrait or two. The Mandarin male and female were obviously paired up and spent some time up a tree presumably nest site hunting. Heron nest and Egret at a distance and good to photograph a Carrion crow. 

Paxton Pits Changeable Light

 Yesterday afternoon, I spent an hour watching the Herons and Cormorants busy collecting nesting material and various other water birds while the light changed from bright sunshine to heavy rain and then a rainbow. 

Points of View Cambridge 2025

Cambridge was very crowded on Saturday especially along the Backs and King's Parade - some of our photographic tasks involved tourists and well know buildings of Cambridge but, for the last topic, we had to seek out less-popular areas. Here a few images from this topic: "the Cambridge tourists tend not to see", starting with a Heron in Darwin College Garden and ending with a self-portrait in a metal hoarding!!

Life and Death on Heronry Lake

This Little Egret was clearly hunting something among the vegetation and the camera reveals they were Red-eyed Damselflies which I hadn't recorded before on Heronry South. The Heron has caught a good-sized fish though can't ID it from the photo! Several Great White Egrets present plus a very large number of Gadwall - wonderful ducks in flight. I suspect these Migrant Hawkers will end up on somebody's menu but getting on with displaying, mating etc at the moment