Swans from a train and other random sightings

Wild Swans from the train , The Fens.

A busy week with train journey's down to London and also across to Bedfordshire and very little time for birding or photography.

For a while now I have kept a list of birds seen on my regular train journeys from King's Lynn to King's Cross and also from Lynn to Sandy. This week I thought I'd try grabbing a shot of some Wild Swans as the train sped past them feeding in a track side Fenland field. Just managed two shots with the Panasonic Lumix TZ30 of which this is the 'best'. I think that it is possible to make out one Mute Swan to the right of the image and that the rest are Bewick's, based on size and neck / head comparisons with the Mute Swan.

Dead leaf on log, Sandy, Beds

On my visit to the Lodge, I had time to walk up from Sandy Station through the Lodge reserve to the Lodge buildings, very foggy and pretty bird less but I paused for a moment to take this picture of a slowly decaying but still whole brown leaf on a trail side log, a nice moment before going into a long day of meetings.

Coot, St James's Park lake

A couple of days later and I was down in London for a meeting, my route from Green Park tube taking me first across Green Park and then cutting through one end of St James's Park. Lots of Grey Squirrels running between the tourists feet and a couple of the famous White Pelican's swam past me and some presumably wild Tufted Ducks. Also lots of Coots like the one above which in a month or two's time will be nesting on the lake.

Fallow Deer, Ken Hill Wood

At the end of the week I managed a lunchtime walk in Ken Hill Woods, Snettisham, whilst 'phishing' a mixed Tit flock I noticed a movement in the woods and saw a group of five Fallow Deer inspecting me from behind a broken curtain of branches. Today as I drove past these woods I saw five Buzzards in the air together over them.