The chicken

I visited my grandparents today to do some garden work for them. One task consisted of me trimming the hedge at the back of their property; while said hedge faces their neighbours' house, the hedge nevertheless belongs to my grandparents.

While I trimmed the hedge, I had "help" from one of the neighbours' chickens. As the leaves from the hedge fell to the ground, the chicken rummaged through it looking for snails to eat. She had previously looked through the rest of the yard for food but decided that her newfound leaves were far more worthy of a forage for food than anywhere else.

I'll be back at my grandparents' house tomorrow and Friday to do more work at theirs.

Another pigeon frenzy

At the Victoria Centre bus station this past weekend, I encountered another pigeon frenzy:

There was some food on the ground but I couldn't tell exactly what had this avian fleet in a fiasco. They had earned themselves a small human audience.

Pigeon party

This was a recent scene in Nottingham's market square:

Somebody dropped or emptied a box of what looked like cereal; the Nottingham pigeons are notorious for consuming any sort of human food that falls onto the ground, so a box of cereal to them would have been an easy epic feast. The rest of the square was devoid of pigeons thanks to this frenzy.

That pigeon descending from the right was well-timed - I didn't notice until after I'd taken the shot that the descent and flapping wings were visible.

Hucknall, mach 4

I complete my third successful walk (fourth attempt overall) to Hucknall today. I left in the morning and walked all the way there; after eating a little in Hucknall, I walked all the way back from the town to the Broadmarsh, rather than take a bus to the Victoria Centre like I did on the previous two occasions. When I returned to Nottingham's city centre I took a bus back home.

I estimate that I walked 20.5 miles today, which would likely make today's walk my longest to date.

On the way to Hucknall, I photographed this swan family. They were not at all bothered by my presence.

This is a The Threes bus. The Threes is a major bus route operated by Trentbarton, who also operate the main bus route where I live; however, my buses are green rather than orange.

The perched blackbird

This morning, I photographed this male blackbird perched on a branch:

His job was to warn off predators and other birds from the nearby nest; he is the mate of the female blackbird I posted a picture of a few days ago. Both blackbirds have been feeding chicks and my brother is sure that they have built another nest for another set of chicks. On Sunday, my brother had to chase off a cat who came into our back yard and attacked this blackbird; the blackbird was slightly injured in the attack, as evidenced by his limping whenever he was on the ground.

Both pictures were taken with my main camera using its full optical zoom; however, the first picture was shot through window glass whereas the second was taken with the window open. The blackbird paid no attention to my opening of the window.

Female blackbird

I was lucky to take this picture of a female blackbird in our back yard:

This blackbird and her mate have a nest nearby, which contains chicks who should be departing from it any day now. She is calling to another bird, likely her mate or her chicks; she bounced off into the bushes less than a minute after I took this picture. It's amazing how much the female blackbird differs in appearance to the male.

It was taken through a window using my camera's full optical zoom, hence the reflection present in the right half of the image.

Heavy-footed birds

For the entire morning and some of the afternoon, I heard birds scrabbling on the part of the roof above my room. Their noises were loud and seemingly non-stop! It was as though the birds were having a tap-dancing party or a scratch-a-thon above me. My brother went out after lunch and noted three types of birds making the noise:

1. Sparrows. The sparrows were looking in the gutters for food. They either had plenty of insects to eat and were having a feast or were turning over every leaf in order to find some.

2. Starlings. The starlings were intent on building a nest on the roof. Our house does not have any sort of bird infestation, as it's quite common for birds to build nests on house roofs and they do not usually build them within the roofs. They'll make their nests, have their babies and fly off.

3. Pigeons. The pigeons were busy...ahem...making more pigeons. The pigeons are completely carefree when they do this; it doesn't seem to matter to them if someone is watching or listening (no, I wasn't watching and I wasn't trying to listen specifically to them, either! Same for my brother when he went out to see what the noise was.).

What is most astounding is that all three types of bird chose today to engage in various activities above my room. It's hard to say which group was the loudest!

Pigeon on a post

This morning, I made these captures of a pigeon resting on top of a fence post in our back yard; pigeons often perch on the post, but they rarely lie down as this one did:

I love the lower picture. I know I took both images, but still, I can pick favourites from my own work, and I like that second one! Both are main camera shots.

Pigeons on the roof

One of the houses in our neighbourhood has two points on its roof where pigeons enjoy resting; judging from how the pigeons only utilise these two points in cold weather, it's safe to say that the birds like them for the warmth they provide. I took these pictures of two pigeons:

Fieldfare, and a note

A few days ago, I made this capture of a fieldfare perched in one of the trees in our back garden; it was one member of a large flock that was passing through our neighbourhood:

I'm still writing part two of The Demotion; it's nearly complete, but I have a few finishing touches to make and I don't have the time to do them tonight. I'm in one of those situations where I've written the beginning and the end of something, but I need to reconcile it with the middle.

Sorry for the delay; it will be done tomorrow. I hope it'll be worth the wait.

December sunrise

Today began with a beautiful sunrise. The position of the Sun within the clouds gave our star a lovely shade of red. The colour isn't quite as deep in these pictures as it was to the naked eye:

See those birds? I'm glad I managed to get them in the image!

It's not recommended that you take pictures of the Sun or look into it directly, but in this case the clouds had obscured it enough to prevent any damage to cameras or eyes. Besides, this was too good an opportunity to miss!

The blackbird on the fence

I'm fond of watching perching birds. You never know what they're up to; are they looking for food? For fellow birds? Resting? Do they simply like the place they've chosen to perch. I wonder what this blackbird was up to:

The blackbird looked up to where I was for couple of seconds before flying off to find something else interesting to do.

These two pictures were taken with my main camera on full optical zoom; the apparent dreariness in them is because they done through a window.

July Nottingham visit (2)

In two of my early posts I wrote about Holme Pierrepont, a water sports centre and man-made lake in Nottinghamshire. When we went up to Nottingham yesterday my father, my uncle, my brother, and I paid the area a visit. Here are a few images (all taken with my phone):

This is the main ski area. The skis are not independent, rather, they guided by the lines above the water. Occasionally someone will lose control and fall in the water, but there aren't any collisions or injuries.

A view looking down the main water body as rowers prepare to race. There was a rowing event on yesterday at Holme Pierrepont, and some areas of the facility were blocked off.

Some of the rowing during the race. Notice the swan hiding its head in the water!

A random shot looking across the main lake; I wanted to get a picture that had as few boats as possible obstructing the view of the water. With the exception of the boat in the top-right of the picture, I think this turned out as I wanted.

We had a pleasant walk around the park, even though it was the busiest we had ever seen it. This contrasts with our last visit there in December 2010, when we went during the morning on an incredibly cold day (the water was frozen) and the place was empty apart from us.

Magpies on a roof

I was messing around with the zoom on my main camera earlier and took this picture of four magpies on a nearby roof:

They were all in a line until a fifth magpie flew in to disrupt them, then flew off as these four messed around. None of the magpies are on the roof now.

Resting orange cat

The orange cat we frequently see around here was recently taking a break in a place that was not safe for it to rest at for too long! Even so, I took a nice picture of it slumped where it was comfortable for a quarter of an hour:

Have no worries, the orange cat moved! It became interested in a bird that decided to enter its territory (the bird got away, too).

Stuffed bird house

That active bird house from earlier this month? We are not exactly sure what has happened to it: we have not seen any birds in or near it for the past week, and what is even more bizarre is that the birds appear to have stuffed the house with items normally used for building a nest:

We doubt that there is a nest inside, otherwise we would have observed more activity around the house. In fact, we are not sure if any birds can get into the structure anymore (or at least Blue Tit-sized birds anyway, as they were the ones using it before).

Female blackbird and chick

I was very lucky to take these two pictures of a female blackbird and one of her chicks during their feeding time:

The mother is on the right (yes, she is a blackbird; female blackbirds are brown with yellowish spots), while the chick is on the left and appears to have a slug in its mouth. It was not sure what to do with its prey, so the mother fed the slug to the chick herself; in the following image the mother can be seen taking the slug:

It was a wonderful scene to watch. There was a second chick bouncing about, and it too was being fed, although I do not have any pictures of it receiving its meal. All three birds hopped into the bushes once they were finished in the grass.

All images were taken with my main camera, and were shot through a window.

The birds in the house

There are two bird houses in our back garden. One is the U.S. Mail house we found buried in the bushes, and the other is a a plain wooden house. At the latter during this afternoon, three Blue Tits were showing a keen interest in it: one appeared to be already in the house and making a home while the other two were either fighting with each other or both trying to move in with the Blue Tit inside.

The Blue Tit in the above image is one of the two fighting/attempting to move in after it had just scared the other off. Even though I took this from inside our house, I was still lucky to get it because the birds were moving rapidly, and they rarely took the time to pause in the position this Blue Tit is in.

The bird house

In the last month we have been tidying up the back garden: this has consisted of picking weeds, trimming overgrown trees/bushes, and removing dead plants. During the cutting back of the trees overgrowing the fence, we found this bird house buried within the branches and hooked onto the fence itself:

You can imagine our surprise to find both a bird house, and the words "U.S. Mail" written on it! I wonder how the bird house came to be here, and I do find it being in our yard interesting considering our background (in regards to the "U.S. Mail part" of the bird house).

The bird on the roof (2)

Not only did I hear the bird yesterday, but I have heard it today as well, and as per usual, the bird has mainly been above my room with occasional walks over my parents' part of the house. We definitely think it is a pigeon, as my mother and brother saw one fly off the roof this morning, and when the pigeon returned the noises above started up again.

We are wondering what it is doing up there: last night when listening to the bird my brother said something along the lines of "what is that pigeon doing up there? Having a party?" It certainly sounded like it was having a party from all the noise it was making (especially from what sounded like the thumping of bird feet)! The only thing I can think of is that it has or is building a nest up there, but Mum reckons it is too early for them to creating nests at the moment.

For now, it seems I can look forward to morning, evening, and nighttime pigeon activities above my room. What can I say? Whatever the pigeon is doing, I should feel flattered it chose to do it above my room!