Al Fredericksson

Red-tailed bumble bee

alan — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:29:17 +0000

One of our neighbours has a colony of red-tailed bumble bees, which has occupied a birds’ nest box in the garden. The box is fastened to a tree at eye level, so it was quite easy to get close to photograph them. Even just watching for an hour or so, the different kinds of behaviour on show were quite fascinating. The pictures can be seen here.

Bluebells, Blackthorn & a very determined Blackbird

alan — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:20:25 +0000

We went on a very pleasant walk with a group from Burton Joyce on Thursday to see the bluebells in Ploughman Wood, a local Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust reserve. As well as the bluebells, I’ve also added photographs I took on the walk of Greater Stitchwort, Wood Anemones and Yellow Archangel. On the way back, I photographed a very determined blackbird struggling to collect some of last year’s remaining sloes (blackthorn berries) from a very thorny Blackthorn hedge.

A surprise view of a hare….

alan — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:54:37 +0000

After another splendid lunch at the Waggon & Horses at Halam yesterday to celebrate my Mum’s birthday, we were driving along a lane towards Oxton, when we had to pull over to let a car pass in the opposite direction. Just in the field on our left was a hare, which stayed around long enough for me to get some pictures. You can see them here.

Rooks nest-building

alan — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:46:59 +0000

The rookery next to the Old Main Road in Bulcote is a hive of activity at the moment, with lots of nest building going on. The ash tree at the bottom of our garden is a favourite source of nesting material for the rooks, which come and break off quite large twigs. I managed to capture a sequence of pictures in the late afternoon sunshine today, showing a rook selecting and breaking off a long twig before flying off with it. The sequence can be viewed here.

Woodpigeon & Greenfinch

alan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:42:39 +0000

Two more pages from last year’s photographs – a woodpigeon trying to bathe in a birdbath intended for smaller birds, and a greenfinch throwing seed from a feeder to the tray below where a young bird was waiting to feed.

Waggon & Horses, Woodpecker & Flycatcher

alan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:35:01 +0000

Had a great lunch again yesterday at the Waggon & Horses at Halam, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire. The sunshine, and birds chattering away in the hedges by the car park made the day almost like spring – except that the temperature was hardly above freezing! This morning I’ve added new pages from last summer’s holiday in Swaledale – a Greater Spotted Woodpecker and a Spotted Flycatcher.

Gulls

alan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:34:09 +0000

Another trawl through photographs taken last year produced several of gulls at Rufford Country Park. These have been “tweaked” in Photoshop for dramatic effect, much more than I usually do.

Tufted Ducks

alan — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:41:57 +0000

Walked by the River Trent from Bulcote to Burton Joyce this morning. A flock of 100+ tufted ducks was swimming on the swollen river. Some of the time they were in several smaller groups, but at one point almost all of them were swimming upstream ‘line astern’.

Fieldfare and Wild Orchids

alan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:05:27 +0000

Fieldfare have been visiting the garden during the long period of cold weather, looking for berries. I’ve managed a few long-distance photographs of them. I’ve also added some of the pictures of wild orchids I took during a Wildlife Trust walk near Nottingham last summer.

Mute swans with cygnets

alan — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:39:20 +0000

I’ve built up quite a backlog of photographs, and going through some, I found these of mute swans with cygnets taking a ride on a parent’s back, taken at the end of May last year, on the Trent near Hoveringham, Nottinghamshire.