Sun has turned...

The sun has turned and days are getting shorter..but do we sit and sulk? No, we go out and take more pictures, trying to follow the little chicks we´ve seen as tiny little ones, getting bigger.
Here are samples from the weekend:

A little coot (sothøne), reflecting in the water

My daughters lovely little dog Thea, visiting. Must be the most patient dog in the world

The swans did not like the dog, but thought this angle was  very nice, with the drops of water..

A black headed gull (hettemåke), born earlier this spring, now looking and behaving like one = lot of noice!

A grebe (toppdykker) chick, getting big. But still with the zebra stripes and not the golden colours of the parents.

A headed crow (kråke)

A common pochard(taffeland)

Shelduck (gravand)

Jack Daw (Kaie)

Same Jack Daw (kaie)

Thea at the beach

A northern wheatear (steinskvett)

A young common whitethroat (Tornsanger)

That was opur weekend, if I am mistaken in my bird knowledge, please enlighten me!

London

 We also went and visited the London Wetlands, and we enjoyed it very much. I was a little disappointed not being able to get a picture of a great spotted woodpecker (flaggspett) but at leats we saw one. And it was a bit surrealistic walking around there, with birds all around, lakes and reeds, planes flying low over our heads and London city very close. But lovely though, we do recommend it!

A lovely duck...who was chatting with us

Another lovely duck..sorry, but do not know what they are.

This is a black swan..

Since I have found my prince, I leave the kissing of frogs to others, but can tell where they are

This horrible coot (sothøne) tried to drown this chick. We dont know if it was hers or someone elses..

Look at this! The poor chick was screaming

Help! Help! (translated from coot´sk)

But the chick was strong and survived..maybe it just made it leave home? 

A reed bunting (sivspurv)

Little grebe (dvergdykker) They puff their feathers up and gather heat from the sun to the bum, before diving.

And here with food for their young one

A heron (Hegre)

A beautiful duck from somewhere in the world..

Nope, dont know this one either..

but this is a hooded merganser (hjelmfiskand)

Not a duck, but highland cattle

Heard about the two antennas getting married?

Wedding was ok, but the reception was great! 

When you look at this picture, it does remind you of the dinosaurs, doesnt it?

Might be a prince...

Arundel

as from now on I´ll be blogging in English, since I have so many friends in the UK and elsewhere, that do not understand Norwegian.
Ok, back to the point, we´ve just returned from a lovely trip to the UK, where we went to Arundel, a lovely wetland reserve not far from Brighton. Here you can meet foreign birds, migrating birds and local ones. It is a paradise to bird watchers like us, just have a look:

We bought seeds to feed the ducks in the areas where this was permitted

And the ducks were so cute and trustful...

but not all were cute..this is a young moorehen (sivhøne), in his "teens"

one of the foregin ducks

White-headed duck (hvithodeand)

another duck..dont know the name

a blue duck from New Zealand, the only one to find anywhere else but there.

Nuthatch (spettmeis)

the most cute duckling, I thought the little yellow ones only existed in bath...

Long-tailed duck (Havelle) 

Harlequin duck (Harlekinand)

Red-breasted Merganser (siland)

Little Grebe (Dvergdykker) the only solar-panel driven duck :o)

Mallard ducklings (stokkand unger)

a reed warbler (busksanger)

a little grebe, who had been thrown out of the nest the very same day..

A water vole passed by just by the boat we were in

We loved this sign...

a threatened species, the red breasted goose (rødnakkegås)

Scoter (svartand)

Do you think i look crazy? Well, if you had a bad hairday combined with hunger, you´d look like this too!

A lovely pheasant (fasan) adjusting its feathers in the daisy meadows.

Freeze!  Who me?  This is a little pheasant chick.

Rogalands county bird, the lapwing (vipe), represented here by a little young one

a family of Canada Geese (kanadagås)

a little shellduckling (gravandunge)

and here´s the proud mum, mrs Shell-duck (gravand)

Try copy this!  This is a very acrobatic tern (makrellterne)

A little mouse, it did not do so well, so expect it has been food for a bigger bird by now..

A goldfinch! (Stillits) First time in my life i have seen one..

But this one I do know, the chaffinch (bokfink)

A lovely mandarine duck (mandarinand), female that is.

A very hungry mrs Pheasant tries to make the food fall out of the feeder

a vain black neck swan

unknown chicks eating out of Rob´s hands...should I be jealous?

another lovely swan

a Jack daw (kaie)


Lovely birds, and a fantastic visit to Arundel. Do you want to know more about the place, please have a look at their webside 

http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/arundel