Thursday at the Meadow

Finally, it’s a long awaited and anticipated return to wildlife photography at the Meadow Hide with my cameras at the ready and fully charged for the first time in nearly three weeks ! And it feels good , real good. Yesterdays work at the Meadow with the strimmer and grass cutter has paid dividends and the hide  and it’s surrounding area is once again in tip top condition and ready for hopefully a great day of photography. 

It’s raining ( on the wetness scale somewhere between bucketing down and cats n dogs ) , which really means quite hard here in North Wiltshire,  but even the very damp soggy conditions can’t dampen my high spirits, there’s something magical about being totally immersed in nature for the day , definitely no better place to be in my opinion anyway. Especially after a prolonged enforced absence. And the meadow just has a lovely wet small , hard to put into words but just so fresh .

So speaking of nature , who’s been visiting the hide toady. Well one unexpected visitor from the feathered department was a male Goldfinch. He has been  hanging around the feeders and then had a quick splash in the paddling pool . We have seen Goldfinch here before but they are certainly one of our less frequent visitors. Whilst we on the subject of finches, both female and male Chaffinch have been hanging around most of the day . You can normally hear the Chaffinch before you see it and todays been no exception, such a noisy bird. 

The Ever present European Robins have also been hanging around the pool in large numbers , at least six individuals , making the most of the abundant larvae that fill the meadow at this time of year. They were joined by an equally large family of Long tailed tits. And of course there are always a few Great tits and Blue tits hanging around the feeder. The Blue tit with the bald head is still here and I’m pleased to say as predicted the feathers have started to grow back , a welcome sign .

Completing the roll call for the feathered visitors in no particular order are both male and female Backbirds , Wood Pigeon, Chiffchaff , Song Thrush , Wren and Crow.

And let’s not forget about the mammals , very soggy looking Grey Squirrels , Bank voles , Brown rats and a solitary Rabbit.

It might have rained all day and yes I did get extremely damp walking back to the car but , who cares it’s just lovely to be back in the photographic saddle !

Happy Thursday everyone.

Peter

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