Wednesday, January 8

Fairburn Ings


 Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett




31 comments:

  1. What wonderful bird photos Sue, you've captured them beautifully. I tried to take some pictures of Bewick's Swans at Slimbridge on Sunday, but the light was too low by the time we made it to where they were. In fact there aren't too many there yet - about 120, which is the lowest for years and years. Apparently lots of them have stopped in Germany, and unless it gets colder they may stay there and not make it here at all. And apparently numbers are declining as well, which is not good news. No-one seems to know why, but there are 1,000 less than a few years ago.

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    1. There are no Bewicks at Fairburn - we have often seen black swans there but not for a while. Plenty of mutes though! The light hasn't been too good recently unless you manage mid day and about an hour after. Especially not good when the subject is moving.

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  2. Super pictures Sue.
    Some of the birds seem to have their beady eye on you, others just to be completely unaware .

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    1. The most intimidating photo I took, Roger was of a sparrowhawk that seemed to be marking me out as prey. Extremely piercing stare.

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  3. My mum and dad used to take me to Fairburn Ings when I was about five. In the seventies. I have fond, fond memories of feeding bread to the swans.

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  4. One of the joys of our plot has been getting so close to some of the smaller birds especially robins which I adore. We've just put up a bird box and a feeder (another benefit of now having a shed) so I keeping my fingers crossed that they like it. Wonderful photographs as ever Sue.

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    1. If anything Victoria the robin was too close! We get closer to birds in the garden rather than on the plot.

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    2. You'd like the robin on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/glallotments.

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  5. A lovely selection of photographs.

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  6. I have enjoyed reading what you and Martyn have written, and looking at the photos you both took with your new cameras.

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    1. I've had my camera a while, Mark and Martyn was jealous

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  7. Very nice pictures Sue. I like the robin very much. As for the North American squirrel, you might be surprised to learn that we do not have them where we live. We just have the smaller red squirrel. The big ones, grey or black, are very common but live in or near cities.

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    1. That does surprise me Alain - were the reds introduced like the greys here. The greys are blamed in part for pushing out the reds from much of the country. The reds tend to be more abundant in fir tree areas,

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    2. The red is native but ours is slightly different from your red (shorter ears). Here in the wild (or were there are very few people) we have the red whereas the grey and black live close to humans. It is the same with the starling (brought over from the UK). It does very well here but only near humans.

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  8. Cute birds. Beautiful swans. A very nice pictures

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  9. It is ages since I went over to Fairburn Ings: we used to do volunteer work there in our younger days. Thanks for the photos, it gave me a lovely vicarious visit:)

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    1. Boardwalk building? So how many times did you spot a kingfisher sweffling? So far for us the grand total of 0

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  10. Lovely photos Sue, no birds in my garden yet, and I haven’t even seen the squirrels yet either, although I keep finding empty peanut shells so I think they are about.

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    1. So something is having a feast Helene. Wonder what is discouraging the birds?

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  11. Cute sparrows and robin and others! I love swans, the duck you showed I don't know this variety. Great photos, Sue!

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    1. The sparrows at Fairburn are mostly tree sparrows whereas in the garden they are house sparrows. Do you get both species?

      The duck is a male tufted duck - the female is brown and I posted a photo of one preening in my earler post.

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    2. We get house sparrow mostly, and this male tufted duck is the prettiest. Thank you Sue!

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  12. What fantastic pics, they certainly cheered me up on this cold wet day. What a fab place....I must visit one of these days. I was smiling at the robin pic, the twig looks like a long long leg!xxx

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    1. I see what you mean about the robin - you'd like the robin I posted on facebook taken a Harlow Carr on Tuesday. It was almost too close to photograph! They are here

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  13. Saw the robin....far to cute! Have no clue how to do much on facebook though....but I could see the pic!!! Do love those shots. I have no chance of pics like that with bouncy dogs ans a stray feral cat ! xxx

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    1. You need a Facebook account to be able to do more, Snowbird then you can access pages of friends or most organisations like the RSPB, or places of interest. There are also groups such as Allotment Life that you can join. You can also post photo albums to share.

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