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Friday 1 July 2011

Here comes summer ...not on your nellie!

As a break from the three subject matter of recent posts (more to follow!) here is a bit of a change.

Juvenile Chiffchaff. (see below)
It must be summer, juvenile swallow 
Juvenile Swallow
the problem I had getting that yellow oil seed rape in the background...
Juvenile Swallows
I assume all the same family
Who were still begging for food from the adults
NOT on your nellie mate! This poor Sand Martin juvenile is unwelcome!
There was a bit of commotion in the trees outside the house as a flock of long-tailed tits accompanied by a family of blue tits were passing through. Amongst them was a juvenile Chiffchaff and I grabbed a photo through the double glazing, so not great.

Meanwhile on a visit to Newton Marsh a number of hirundines as usual and I came across what looked like a family of juvenile roosting up and waiting to be fed by passing adults – although I didn't see any feeding, perhaps because I was close by. The last photo seems to capture a certain vehemence from one juvenile of a species to another... I don't think the Sand Martin juvenile was welcome do you?

I wanted to check on that first photo, I had it as Chiffchaff but thought their was the possibility of Willow Warbler. You may want to see the dialogue at http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=204178

2 comments:

Stuart Price said...

Nice Blog.

I used to live near Preston and went birding (on the south side of the Ribble) a lot in the early to mid 80's.

Love the Tern pics a few posts ago, they were always my fave bird, there used to be flocks of a hundred or so Common Terns in May I recall, sometimes with other species mixed in. Where I live now (Hokkaido, north Japan) terns are rare, we see Common Terns on passage but they are the grey local race with a black bill, not as nice as the ones in your photos......

geoff gradwell said...

Hi Stu
Thanks for looking in ad kind comments. Only recently serious birding locally so not sure about days gone by. The Common Terns as far as I know, are relatively recent on Preston Docks, one pair three years ago, now about 15 pair – they are great subjects, I lurv 'em!

I hope you didn't suffer too badly in the reecnt quake, tsunami and aftermath.

I haven't posted the best pics yet... more to follow... at the moment too busy chasing after the various subjects (Barn Owl, Peregrine and Terns – I need to get out more!). Thanks for your comments.