Greater Manchester Birds Flickr Group

I've recently reactivated my interest in using Flickr to publish my own photos to a wider audience. In the process of doing so, I've created a new Flickr group for any bird photographs taken in Greater Manchester. Here's a sample digest of some of the more recent additions from the many great photographers we have in the region:

Please feel free to join the Greater Manchester Birds group on Flickr.

Dunham Massey Park

While the weather was still so good, Sarah and I decided to go out for an evening stroll around Dunham Massey Park tonight - we'd been laying drainage pipes in our back garden in sweltering temperatures for the last two days and so we deserved a break!

There weren't many birds about but at least Sarah got to hear the Green Woodpecker if not actually see one.  She was quite taken with a noisy little Wren and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers feeding young, as well as the countless cute baby chicks, squirrels, rabbits and deer.  It now seems spring has long since sprung.

I didn't take many photos (for once) but here's a selection of some of the best:

Peregrine Falcon

Summer's here (at least for a week) and so it's time to get out and about. I've known about the location of this Peregrine Falcon for quite a while now, and so today, on the hottest day of the year so far, I decided to have a look for myself.  As soon as I had parked up I saw it flying around the chimney.  To the casual eye it could easily be mistaken for a pigeon, but on closer inspection it is unmistakable.

Here's a few shots taken using my new (secondhand) 1.4x teleconverter on a f2.8 300mm lens:

Just to put the bird in context, here's where it hangs out.

What's he looking at?

Ah, babies !

I need to sort out the formatting of these pictures:

Home alone ?

 

Imagine this being left on your doorstep.

I also saw this beautiful juvenile Long-tailed Tit

Nest building