Otterly awful pictures

Okay so we had "stoatly awful" some months past and they were exceptionally popular. What IS wong with you people? These are private & terrible moments of shame and failure hitting at times when we are so very excited by possibilities of wildlife photography greatness (as if that will ever happen- you do realise we're ver-ree, ver-ree amateur- well of course that is part of the charm!!)

Okay putting off the inevitable ... herewith (and it breaks my heart all over again to share these) The OTTERLY AWFUL PICTURES from Applecross. (If only, If only I had takenmy time to focus and not just snapped away like a mum at a sandcastle competion)

Hobby

At Leighton Moss (a first for us)

You can sit all night in a hide or...

... you can sit outside the Inn at Whitewell with a pint and snap the wildlife as it passes by.

Okay so you don't get the big and exciting stuff from the patio of Inn at Whitewell but heh all life is beautiful and stunning and let's face it - you could go to Amazon Rain forest to find something as dazzling and pretty as our own goldfinch...

Our "Springwatch" moment - A great spotted woodpecker feeds its chick sultanas

The camera was a little shaky as it was on high zoom.

A juvenile Great Tit has a bit of a wobble first time out

Woooooohhhhhhh......



Iiiiiiiieeeeeee........



Hang on..........



Steady...........



Hi mum! Aaaarrgghhhhh!!!!!!!!














Taken at Leighton Moss.

Video - a nuthatch hiding in and eating from our window feeder

We've had a pair of nuthatches using our window feeder intermittantly since the harsh early winter when they came out of the nearby woods to discover the bird food we've left out. At the moment, they are feeding their young and the feeder is getting hammered. In fact, I was just dropping a handful of sunflower seeds into the feeder when a nuthatch flew in. I don't know which of us had the greater shock, but the crows underneath got a few extra seeds as a result.

In this video, we see a nuthatch suddenly sit very still. What had happened was that a bluetit had arrived briefly on the telephone line (you might just catch it flying about early into the video) The nuthatch obviously had a glimpse but wasn't sure what was there, and sat stock still, not even daring to eat the sunflower seed in its beak. When the "danger" had apparently passed, it went back to feeding.

Apologies for the brief burst of laughter - we were watching River Cottage and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's cries of "yes yes yes", followed by the mooing of a cow were too much for my adolescent brain....


And here it is on one of the tree feeders.