My Saturday Bird this week is a portrait of a Greylag Goose (Anser anser).
This individual was photographed in the mid 1980s when most of the Greylag Geese in the U.K. were feral birds associating with Canada Geese and other wildfowl species. Recent population numbers for the species across Europe show a dramatic increase, possibly due to climate change affecting their migration patterns.
The bird is at “The Mere” on the edge of the town of Ellesmere in Shropshire, England in winter.
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.
This is my first post in what will probably be a new weekly feature, Flora and Fauna Friday.
This Friday I have chosen a pair of Silver-studded Blue Butterflies mating on a grass seed head. Photographed on Prees Heath near Whitchurch, Shropshire, England in the mid 1990s.
The butterflies at Prees Heath are an isolated colony with most Silver-studded Blue colonies being found in Southern England and Wales. They get their common English name from the small, metallic silver spots near the rear edgeof the wing.
This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Tasting.
I had a couple of ideas for the challenge before thinking about some of the insect species that make themselves poisonous or at least taste bad by various means.
These are Cinnabar Moth caterpillars feeding on Ragwort, a poisonous plant. As they feed they build up toxins from the plant. The yellow and black bands serve as a warning to potential predators.
This is a Six Spot Burnet moth. The red spots serve as a warning to potential predators that the moth is poisonous and if attacked it produces a liquid that contains cyanide.
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.
