Tag Archives: clever ducks

Birds at Rufford Abbey

If, like me, you’ve ever thought that ducks aren’t the brightest of birds, think again. Instead of dabbling and chasing children with bread these Mallards are standing in the mill race at Rufford Abbey waiting for it to bring food to them.

Spotted the Grey Wagtail and Goldcrest whilst standing here – both off like a shot as soon as I raised the camera!

This Song Thrush, after allowing us time for one shot, decided to hide in an outcrop of twiggy growth.

Here is a selection of shots from the bird table in the woods, it feels a bit like cheating when I should be stalking them through the woods. Even so, I still missed a Coal Tit and a Marsh Tit that dropped in but shot off too quickly for me to focus.

Three Long Tailed Tits also dropped in but for some reason the autofocus couldn’t lock on. I had three shots of blurred round bodies and long tails. Oh, the trials of bird photography!

Finally I managed some more half-decent Nuthatch photos, including one on a tree. However, to put it into perspective, I missed shots of three different Treecreepers in the woods (ending up with several shots of tree trunks).

I also had several Siskin shots – blurred bodies shielded by alder twigs. Lots of work to do!