Whiteknights Campus in Spring

I've now been out walking around the university campus before I've set off for work 4 or 5 times in the last couple of weeks. Each time I seem to have picked a sunny morning, and each time I've enjoyed the early morning walk. I even managed to get myself out of bed at 6:15 yesterday morning to get a quick walk in before I started work at 10:30 (I think this could perhaps be my greatest achievement of 2014). It is notoriously difficult to bring me out of my slumber in the mornings, but if I do manage to wake up early, I do like to be productive and make the most out of the day. 

This has other advantages too. When I left the house at about 7:00am for a walk around campus on Thursday (10th), I managed to capitalise on the beautiful early morning sunlight bathing the blossom of this (I assume), cherry tree found on the grass verge on our road. I was originally going to tweak these photos in Photoshop, but thought better of it, as I liked the effect I had created and didn't want the pictures to look unnatural.

The entrance to campus which I use is a little gate which is located at the corner of Whiteknights Lake. From this corner, you can get a great view across the surface of the lake, especially when the light is good, as it has been the last few days.

Depending on how early you get there and how low the sun is in the sky, you can capture the dew on the grass, giving the impression of a hard frost.

Both walks I managed last week, on the 10th, and yesterday on the 13th were good in terms of bird activity. Highlights on the 10th included lots of chiffchaffs and blackcaps singing all over campus, as well as hearing my first willow warbler of the year. Would probably have heard one earlier if I had been visiting my patch a few weeks ago. Also managed to see and hear both green and great spotted woodpeckers. The latter are very common, but its no guarantee that I'll see a green woodpecker, so it was nice to tick that one off. A group of 4 squabbling jays were seen in the woodland too. Didn't have a chance to have a look across the lake, so will probably have missed out a few duck species, but here's my list for the 10th (total of 30 species) 

Mute swan

Canada goose

Mallard

Tufted duck

Grey heron

Moorhen

Coot
Black-headed gull

Woodpigeon

Green woodpecker

Great spotted woodpecker

Wren

Dunnock

Robin

Blackbird

Mistle thrush

Song thrush

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Willow warbler

Long-tailed tit

Coal tit (seen on way back to house)

Blue tit

Great tit

Nuthatch

Jay

Magpie

Carrion crow

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

The second visit which was yesterday was much shorter, so didn't manage to see as much (no coal tit, grey heron, green woodpecker, long-tailed tit or goldfinch). Did manage to add the following to the list though to see 29 species: 

Greylag goose (flock of 5 flying overhead)

Mandarin

Common pheasant

Red kite

I didn't really manage any decent photos on the first trip, though I had a great opportunity to try and photograph a very tame mistle thrush, found on the woodland edge. It allowed me to get very close (probably about 3 metres away), but I didn't really make the most of the opportunities I got. Also had lots of opportunities to take photos of blue tits on the first visit, but they're just so quick moving around that getting a decent shot with IS really is a difficult task. Both of these species allowed me a second chance to photograph them on the second visit though, which I was very grateful for. The only half decent image I managed on the 10th, was this robin enjoying the early morning sunlight.

On the second trip, one of the first birds I came across was a nuthatch, which are very common all over campus. It's usually easier to hear these birds than see them. When you do see them, more often than not, its at a distance as they tend to stay at the tree tops. I have included the very poor photo below just to indicate how tricky it can be to capture them. Having said this, I've just done a google search for nuthatch photos on Whiteknights campus and found this. I think I need to try harder nest time!

A little further on, I came across the song of a couple of blackcaps, and this one emerged for a few seconds to allow his photo to be taken: 

In the same tree as the blackcap, this blue tit was seen preening: 

I was very surprised to find the mistle thrush in EXACTLY the same place I found it on the first visit; in a small tree on the woodland edge near the agriculture building. It was clearly the same bird as it was incredibly tame. This time the light was slightly better and I was able to shoot at f/7.1, closer to the "sweet spot" of my lens. I was quite happy with the results. I wonder if those worms in the beak of this thrush were en route to a nest of hungry chicks...  

After this, I decided it was best to head back to the house. I managed a couple more shots on the way back though, including this rather acrobatic blue tit.

And this blackbird...

And finally, a non-avian surprise in the sky to grab my attention on the way back:

I'm really lucky to have all of this just on my doorstep here in Reading. Maybe I can get out a few more times in the next few days. 

Ah, something else I meant to mention- yesterday, I published a camera nestbox diary post for the 10th April, which had I had left half-finished for a few days. You can find this here. I'll see if I can get another nestbox update when I'm back home, but until then, you can see most recent update at the top of the sidebar on my blog, or via my twitter feed (also on my sidebar). As you can see, egg laying started on Saturday, and we now have 3 eggs in the box. Exciting times ahead!

Finishing Touches

Our blue tit female is now surely making the final additions to her nest in the camera nestbox. She still visits quite often, though not as often as she was about a week ago. The footage in the video below shows some of the visits she made to the box during the day on Wednesday 8th April. If she brings in any more nesting material I'm convinced its going to reach the roof! 

As always, watch in 480p if you can.



Going to keep this update short as I realise I'm spamming these nestbox postings a little bit. Back at the house in Reading now as I'm working Thursday-Sunday this week, so it'll be a few days before another nestbox update. Thanks for reading :) 

April Macro Photography

I was originally intending to go out in the garden and attempt some bird photography this morning, but bird activity at the feeders has been relatively quiet all day (although it began to pick up as I started writing this). Just about the most frequent visitor today has been a male blackbird who has been collecting worms from the lawn, and suet pellets from the ground feeder and taking them, presumably, to a family of hungry chicks. 

Also, the light early on today was quite harsh and bright, and there was quite a strong breeze, which wasn't perfect for bird photography. So I decided to head out with my 50mm lens instead and try and capture some of the colours that can be seen around our garden at this time of year. Due to the last few months being quite mild, the blossom and leaves are out on most of the trees here already. All of the photos in this post were shot with the aperture wide open at f/1.8; I really do love playing around with this lens as it allows for some extremely narrow depth of field, perfect for close-ups of flowers. 

One of the first colours you'll notice when walking round our garden though is the deep red of last years cotoneaster berries (the ones which haven't been eaten by the blackbirds that is). Throughout the winter, blackbirds and the occasional song thrush picked berries from this shrub, and more recently, blackcaps too. 

The blossom in the picture below was from one of the shrubs with overhangs into our garden from next door. No idea what it is- any ID help would be appreciated.

More ID help needed here; these purple flowers which I posted photos of a few days ago on this blog are growing under the swing frame in the middle of our garden. We did plant them ourselves but we can't remember what they are!

Onwards now to the blossom of the two apple trees we have growing around the vegetable plot area of the garden.

Just next to one of the little apple trees, a plum tree is also currently in blossom: 

These deep blue-violet flowers, grape hyacinth (Muscari latifolium) were seen on the railway bank at the end of the garden. Photo complete with freight train. Pleased to have timed that rather nicely. 

This patch of white coloured daffodils (Narcissus 'Thalia') quite close to the house are in full flower at the minute: 

And finally, some forget-me-nots, at the edge of the lawn...

So quite a range of colours for early April. I look forward to seeing more flowers appear as the spring goes on. 

I'm going to stop typing now before I fall asleep at the keyboard; do forgive me if I've made any howling grammatical errors in this post. Thanks for reading. :)