Mute Swans courtship & mating. Wadebridge, Cornwall 23rd March 2020

 When I first saw this pair of swans they were well into their courtship so I didn't have time to change the big 500mm lens and just had to go with it and get some close ups.

It all started quite romantically & ended the same with just the actual mating process looking a bit violent but anyone who has seen a female mallard being seduced by about 10 drakes then this was quite placid!

They do seem to have very discoloured heads and necks possibly due to iron ore in the water, not sure, but we do see it commonly on swans and they seem to suffer no ill effects.

Birds in Hungary Day 4. Sunrise, Falcons, Kestrels, Hoopoe, Rollers etc. 16th May 2018.

Rollers

04:20 start was the name of the game to get us in the Tower hide for sunrise.

Well worth it as the light was amazing and the birds were obviously a bit frisky!

The Red footed Falcons were active in several nestboxes, with other boxes hosting Kestrels, Starlings, Jackdaws and Rollers.

Even a Lesser Grey Shrike put in a rather distant appearance before (and not to be outdone) a Hoopoe landed on a perch near a Kestrel nest and proceeded to call away at the top of his voice...magical!

Red footed Falcons mating

Male Red Footed Falcon

Female Red Footed Falcon

Lesser Grey Shrike

Cock Kestrel

Hoopoe

Great Crested Grebes Courtship and Mating 15th March 2018

I had a great day on the Somerset Levels photographing this pair of Great Crested Grebes.

It was the first time I'd watched the courtship display of these birds despite seeing it many times on the TV.

On the positive side the lighting was good the first time they danced, a bit contrasty but much better than the rain we normally get!

On the negative side when they dived for pondweed to complete the ceremony they brought up huge beakfulls of very dark & muddy weed. This tended to merge into one big dark blob when the birds were close to each other and often hid their faces during their "face-offs".

After displaying they then added bits of reed to the nesting platform and then mated. The light was bit difficult but with a bit of exposure compensation they look ok.

So here are a few more images from the sequence......

Common Frogs

Common frogs

These two frogs were making their way through the garden to our pond this morning.

As you can see the female is well swollen with eggs so I expect to see some more frogs spawn in the pond tomorrow morning,

We had our first spawn a bit later this year on the 4th February.

Common frogs

Buff Ermine moths

Buff Ermine moths

I came across this pair of  Buff Ermine moths mating amongst the reeds in my garden pond today.

Never one to miss a chance of a shot although I had to use flash to get enough depth of field to get both reasonably sharp.