Yesterday evening I whiled away a relaxing couple of hours wandering around the woods in Coed Bach Park. Having spent the majority of this month up on open moorland it was quite nice to be amongst the cool shade of ancient Oak trees again, and despite the areas diminutive size I was very impressed with the variety of wildlife it contained. A foraging Squirrel welcomed me in, swiftly followed by a duo of young Robins resplendent in their speckled plumage. Blackbirds were absolutely everywhere and are obviously used to the presence of people as they were literally hopping around our feet as they hunted for food. Several of them must have had young in the vicinity as it was not unusual to see one head off with a beak stuffed full of grubs. Overhead a loud call alerted me to the presence of at least one young Nuthatch that was still being fed by its parents, but as with much of the bird life they were constantly on the move through the shady leaf canopy. This made photography difficult so it’s not that surprising that I only came away with a few blurry and distant shots.
My lack of results was pretty much par for the course given the conditions, but it became very frustrating when I located a Blue Tit nest inside a hollow branch. Although the chicks were well hidden they could be clearly heard, the volume increasing notably each time one of the parents popped in with some food. It wasn’t until much later that I finally got a view of the young birds after a couple of them managed to clamber up to the mouth of the branch to be fed. This gave me a perfect opportunity to test out the video capabilities of my new camera for the first time.
The jump in quality is immediately noticeable, to me at least, with richer colours and a real sharpness when played in full HD. However, the increase in resolution has come at a cost as my PC now lacks the power to play the videos back smoothly, let alone edit them effectively, although they are fine once uploaded to YouTube. I sense some expense on the horizon……
Back to Coed Bach and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers were a nice find, although I envy the home owner into whose garden they flew. That’s a species I’d love to have on our own feeders. A single Jay was being typically elusive but we got much better views of two Wood Pigeon, two Collared Dove, a Song Thrush complete with worm in beak and numerous Chaffinches and Great Tits. I’m pretty sure there was also at least one Spotted Flycatcher, although I only glimpsed it and my very distant record shots are inconclusive. It did seem to have the rounded head, colouration and overall shape for the species, but it will have to remain as a maybe for now unless I can relocate it in the near future.
4 Comments
TexWisGirl · May 31, 2012 at 7:24 pm
cute little nesters. LOVE those trees!
Caroline Gill · May 31, 2012 at 9:48 pm
What a lot of sightings, Adam. I'm sorry I never knew about this park while we lived in the area … something for a future visit!
NatureStop · June 5, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Greetings from Oman!!!! I was just passing by and had to stop and say that I really enjoyed your blog.Have a great day!
Shantana
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Phoenix Tapware
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