Nursery Garden

It's suddenly got very busy in the garden, the Starlings are here virtually all day long with their young and the Robins are still hard at work, the young can't be far off fledging, they've been fed for just over a week.

Here's a few images from the garden over the last couple of days.

Juvenile Starling

One Shattered Robin

Jackdaw - Biscwit Junkie

Female House Sparrow

Jackdaw - I Know You Have Biscwits

Robin Delivering A Meal

Robin Off For The Next Meal

Starling Dropping In With Food

Looking forward to the start of Springwatch tomorrow, although we've got plenty going on just outside our window!

Garden & Potteric Carr

Busy times with the photography at the moment as we've got the week off and I'm building up a serious backlog of images to post.

During the scortching weekend our Robins who are nesting in our stone wall have been hard at work feeding the youngsters who we heard for the first time on Saturday.

The Starlings are back in numbers, going crazy for digestive biscuits and raisins.

On Saturday morning while sitting outside very early, I finally managed to capture one of the many Jackdaws that have started coming in for the biscuits too.

Yesterday we visited Potteric Carr and despite the complete lack of any butterflies, the birds didn't let us down in that special hide.

Jay

Mute Swan & Signets

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Walking back from the hides, I got my first shot of a Blackcap.

We came across a chap pointing his Canon into a hedge and found he was snapping away at a rabbit so I got a couple too, would have been rude not to.

Before we got to Potteric, we visited the Yorkshire Wildlife Park as it was press day for the Lions which were rescued from Romania earlier this year. We had a fantastic time there, witnessing one of the 3 prides lead by Johnny Senior take their first ever steps outside of a cage.

Lion Country is now fully open to walk around, it's split into 3 areas, they are using one at the moment and the prides are taking it in turns but within a few weeks all the prides should be out at the same time. The area is huge and the layout is a photographers dream with no glass or fencing in the way of the stunning views. There are more images of the Lions on my Flickr photostream.

Denaby Ings & Sprotbrough Flash

On Saturday we visited the Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts Denaby Ings and Sprotbrough Flash for the first time.

The sun shone on and off all day and butterflies were plentiful at Denaby.

Orange Tip Butterfly

Peacock Butterfly

Orange Tip Butterfly

Highlights of Sprotbrough were the Long Tailed Tits who had thoughtfully decided to nest right in front of the first hide.

Female Gadwall

Long Tailed Tit

Cormorant

View Of Sprotbrough Flash

View Of Sprotbrough Flash

Thoroughly enjoyed the walk round both sites and will be adding them to the ever growing list of places to visit again.

Return Of The Sparrows

Not seen too many House Sparrows about over the winter, they tend to congregate at the end of our road for some reason. However, they started venturing down here now, going after the buds in the trees.

Seeing more Greenfinch now too, usually one or two not too far away.

Another bird we're seeing a lot of now are Jackdaws, not managed a great shot yet but it's only a matter of time, they just can't resist digestive biscuits!

Our Robins Are Nesting

I'd not seen our Robins for a few days but they showed up yesterday morning before we headed off out for the day. This morning I've been at the kitchen window watching them gather nesting material and have found that the nest is in a gap our stone wall.

The Blue Tits have also started dropping in again at the kitchen window feeder, yesterday there were two of them whizzing around the garden, this morning they were content with the raisins, buscuits and crushed mealworms.

It's a shame the sun didn't come out for the action, it just doesn't know what to do today, light, dark, sunny, dark & now spots of rain. It's not too warm either, I think it's day for curling up in front of the telly.