Throwback Thursday travels back to the Brown Moss Nature Reserve near Whitchurch in Shropshire in the 1980s.
This is a Little Grebe (also known as a Dabchick although that common English name seems to be uncommon these days) in breeding plumage. It has just surfaced after diving for food and its back is covered with various water plants.
This is my contribution to Jez Braithwaite’s Water Water Everywhere #34 Photo Challenge and a continuation of my Grebe species theme.
This is a summer plumage Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) on the large pool on the Brown Moss Nature Reserve near Whitchurch in Shropshire, England. When I was growing up in England a lot of people called the bird a Dabchick but that common English name seems to have gone out of fashion.
Welcome to my second Flora and Fauna Friday.
This is a young European Rabbit resting outside the warren. Photographed at the Brown Moss Nature Reserve near Whitchurch in Shropshire, England.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Shropshire, England in the late 1980s.
The location is Brown Moss a local nature reserve near Whitchurch. The reserve consists of marsh, pools, heathland and woodland habitats. The was a large rabbit warren on a section of heathland. I was friendly with the warden responsible for the site and he gave me permission to put up a portable hide (blind). So I spent a few mornings sitting in a canvas hide photographing the rabbits.
The Weekly Prompts: Boundaries challenge got me thinking about the variable boundaries wild birds and animals put between themselves and humans.
The reason I say variable is because most species will keep their distance from humans. The more erratic and noisy the behaviour of the human the wider the boundary between them.
On the other hand, some understanding of animal behaviour and some fieldcraft will allow you to get within a few feet of many species. I have had wild birds and mammals approach me so closely that I couldn’t focus the lens I was using on them.
Portrait of a female Wilson’s Phalarope taken at Middle Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. A flock of six Wilson’s Phalaropes landed close to me when I was photographing some American White Pelicans. I laid down in the sand and wildfowl poop at the edge of the lake and proceeded to spend some time with them. When I was lying down the birds started ignoring me. This female was so close I couldn’t get all her body in the frame. Some of the birds wandered so close I couldn’t focus on them.
This European Rabbit was photographed in Shropshire, England. I was surprised how relaxed some Rabbits were at this location. I know there was a Red Fox hunting them. I did wonder if they were so relaxed because they knew that the Fox wouldn’t be around if there was a human in the area.
A juvenile Red Knot resting on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton during its autumn migration. I had gone down to the shoreline for the sunrise and discovered two Red Knot. I spent long enough with them that they started ignoring me allowing me to photograph them feeding, bathing, preening and resting.
This Eastern Chipmunk was photographed in our yard in Ontario, Canada. The various birds and mammals got so used to me lying in the grass that summer that they started ignoring me. I had Chipmunks running across my legs while squirrels and birds landed in the Cedar branches a few feet away checking out the human in the grass.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Shropshire, England in the late 1980s.
This male Common Blue Butterfly was photographed at Brown Moss Nature Reserve near Whitchurch, Shropshire, England in the early morning. I suspect the butterfly had spent the night on the Thistle it’s resting on.
Throwback Thursday travels back to the 1980s and a bird in its habitat. The photo was taken at Brown Moss, a nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest near Whitchurch, Shropshire, England.
This is a Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) in breeding plumage. An alternative name for the Little Grebe is Dabchick which seemed more commonly used when I was growing up. The bird is swimming in a shallow section of the large pool on the reserve.
