Our treat, however, was spying a nest at the beginning of the week:
By the end of the week we found out:
We also managed to get a rare good picture of her mate swimming about:
Our Heron also arrived whilst we were there. We have recently discovered it is a Grey Heron. I have to be honest- before this pond study I had always thought it a rather unattractive bird. No more however! Doing concentrated nature study has allowed me to see rather than simply look. I have fallen in love! I think it is one of the most beautiful birds I have ever encountered, and I want to learn more!
Our Grey HeronRitsumei of ritsumeithoughts left me a message last week about Cornell lab’s live camera feed to a Great Blue Heron. As we have our very own Grey Heron we all agreed that this would be fascinating to keep an eye on. Although the two birds look so alike, in the UK it is very rare to see a Great Blue Heron. Cornell also have a great information page about Herons.
I also managed to capture the Mandarin duck looking a little clownish, out of the water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it walking before. I had a little smile on my face as I snapped away:
And finally our pair of Canada geese.
At the beginning of our pond study, I had decided we would focus on one tree for the whole year. I’m so pleased we did. Already we know more about the Ash tree than any other, and there is still stacks to learn. Depth rather than breadth has always appealed to me, and this pond study is no exception. I got me thinking. Each week we watch and take lots of photos of all the birds we see around the pond, and yet we have learnt more about our one little tree than about all the birds put together. So I thought maybe we could do a bird study, focusing on one bird. T11 suggested that instead of just one bird, how about we are more intentional with all the birds. I liked that. To be honest, concentrating on just one bird would have meant we may have missed out on the other ones. I’m completely fascinated by the birds (as you can probably tell from the copious number of photos). Also the girls were having trouble picking one. You see, these birds have become our friends and to pick only one inevitably meant leaving another out, ‘who might then feel hurt, mummy!’
Our intention is, therefore, to read up about the birds we have on our pond and then look out and try to capture all the things we have learnt in picture form. Ooooh, another little project. I must give up projects for Lent one day…..
And just because I can’t resist:
Looong happy sigh…just gorgeous!
