Bath time

Until today I was a little worried that I would not have enough new material to put together a post this week. However, despite the wind blowing, the sun was out this Sunday. I decided to shelter from the wind and venture off to the Abbey Gardens which was yet again, stunning.

Firstly a few shots of what can be seen on Tresco at the moment.....

 

The spring bloom is still in full throttle with insects of all kinds making the most of the treats on offer. I would love to be able to identify each of these but trawling through hundreds of pictures online of wasps and bees is really quite a mammoth task. Maybe one day....

 

 

The hogweed is one of many flowers in bloom among the hedges across the island and seem to be a real magnet to insects of all kinds. It smells quite pungent and not pleasant but is a real draw for any critters wanting a snack.

 

 

 

Our Wigeon is still with us on the Great Pool and still seems to like to lurk just a little too far away for me to get a picture I am happy with. Here he is having a little ruffle of his feathers. I took this shot today and noticed that he has a new friend. We have a Drake Tufted Duck on the island at the moment. It is really nice to see a variety of ducks on the island instead of the usual Mallards and Gadwalls. You can see why they are called 'Tufted.'

 

 

Although a fairly common resident in the UK we do not see them too often.

 

 

While by the lake this House Sparrow gave me the evil eye......

 

 

My wander today took me, as I mentioned, to the Abbey Gardens. There is so much to see in there that sometimes I do not really know where to start. A few people told me they liked the 'Blackbird bathing' picture in my previous post so I headed off to the pond on the Middle Terrace to see if I could get any similar shots. I was in luck....

 

 

I loitered by the pond for about an hour and bumped into quite a few familiar faces, the above is again a House Sparrow having a wash down.

 

Having my shutter speed on as fast as it could be in the given light and being exceedingly trigger happy gave me some more pictures that made me smile. This blackbird was having a real clean down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was then graced with this immature Greenfinch's presence. While quite tentative at first he couldn't resist a bath too....

 

 

 

 

 

This Gold Finch and adult Greenfinch just came down for a drink. Most birds like to wash on a daily basis, either in water or dust baths, these guys must be morning showerers.

 

 

 

 

Just before I was about to leave I had one final visitor and after my last post I thought I'd have to include it. This pollen faced Starling decided he had far too much food round his mouth.

 

 

 

 

After all of this, one of our rather tatty looking male Golden Pheasants popped over just long enough for me to snap a picture to show you just how much they let themselves go after the mating season. Not even trying....