A Surprising Encounter

 If you saw the last post, then you will know that in today's post, there is another new animal on the blog. I'll start where I left off last time. I was photographing some birds and squirrels when my mum called me over to the water's edge. So, what was this new mammal then? The answer is.........a bat. For a few minutes it was rapidly flying around a bit of the lake. I couldn't get a clear photo of it until it landed on a tree nearby. This was when I took the photos.

One thing I haven't addressed yet is the fact that the bat was out in daylight. As you probably know, bats are nocturnal. However, it is not unheard of for a bat to be out a little earlier, especially as it was late afternoon/evening. Now the question is, what species was it? It was too big for the common pipistrelle, so I originally thought the Noctule, Britain's largest bat. However, this was too big and quite rare. So that's why I think it is Daubenton's bat. It is bigger than a pipistrelle, smaller than a Noctule and hunts insects on water. It is also considerably common. 

That is all for today's post. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Elegance Among The Reeds

 How are the pair of grebes getting on? Well, in answer to that question I went back to the lake to find out. However, this is scheduled quite far out in the future - it's April 2 at the time of writing this. That means that the grebes could have made further progress with the nest. And I already know about the terrapins on the lake, although we didn't see any today. Anyway, back to the grebes. They have made their nest and one of them is on it whilst the other finds reeds, weeds and twigs to make the nest. Here are some of the best photos:

We also now know that the eggs have been laid as when the grebe stood up you could see one.

I also wanted to get a few coot photos, so here are the best ones:

There was also an empty nest with hatched eggs that could have been a coot's.

We also saw three headless birds as well.

A headless swan:

A headless goose:

And a headless nuthatch:

Two for Joy:

I also got a few squirrel photos and a great tit.

We even saw a goldfinch, another new animal for the blog.

However, then my Mum called me over as she had just seen something. It was another new animal coming soon to the blog. I'll give you one clue about what it is - it's a mammal.

Stay tuned to find out what the animal we saw is. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Linnets, Larks and Lambs

 After a few days camping in the Peak District, I managed to produce some footage of the local wildlife. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to record the curles or a red kite flying over. However, we did manage to get a few photos of a bird called a linnet.

There was also another new bird called a pied wagtail hopping about the mud.

Yet again, another new bird (my favourite songbird) showed up. This bird is called a skylark.

They don't call them skylarks for nothing.

A new insect now; the centipede.

It is also the season when lambs are born:

On the roof of one of the houses was the woodpigeon's more pleasant cousin - the collared dove.

That is all for today's post. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Terrapins and Nuthatches

 It was very quiet on the lake for such a sunny day; the swans were on the island - possibly building a nest, there were no herons or cormarants, and even the ducks were scarce. The grebes were, however, on a nest after I caught them mating a few posts ago (click here to see that post). Here are some of the grebe photos I got:

The photo quality isn't great as I packed my video camera instead of my photo camera.

The next creature which I saw was a surprise - one I had never seen before on the lake. It was a terrapin, a type of reptile (and the first ever reptile on the blog) a bit like a turtle or tortoise. They are most likely a red-eared terrapin which has been recorded as an escaped, non-native species in the UK a few times before. 

That wasn't the only new animal on today's post. A colourful little bird known as a nuthatch, was also there.

That is all for today's post. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!