Photos of birds in unusual places
Happy new year to you all. At the end of last year, I set a Curious Owl challenge: to tell us about your photos of birds in unusual places. As always, the response was great.
Strange nesting places are always a good place to start (remember this from Springwatch in 2009?). Pipes seem to be popular places...
You don't often see woodcocks in broad daylight but Steve found one on a garden lawn.
There's a certain feeling of breaking the fourth wall with these two photos below. A nice bit of back story to Alan's photo is that he's been following this kingfisher since she fledged.
Slightly disconcerting is this photo of a smew under ice. But, Daz Moston assures us, the smew popped back up to the surface perfectly safe and sound 40 seconds later.
Wrong time, wrong place. Mike McCarthy took this photo of a glossy ibis in Wales on 3 December. "It should have been in southern Spain or Africa," he says. "A bird was sighted flying south over Somerset the next day so hopefully it was eventually on its way south and will survive the journey and the winter."
If you see a hoopoe in the UK (and there's only about 100 at any one time) it's likely to be in spring. Not in Dorset in December. Although as Child of Herne later pointed out on the blog, a few years ago there was one spotted in Gosport in January.
Lastly, it looks like this greylag would have been in an unusual place were it not for the sentry at the door...
Thanks to all those who took part in this challenge. You can see more of the photos . Next up, photos of nocturnal animals in the day. If you've got any I'd love to hear about them. Post a comment below or let me know on .
The Curious Owl, a sideways look at British nature.
Comment number 1.
At 13th Jan 2011, lilyread wrote:Thanks for 3 very wonderful programmes from Gordon Buchanan about the bears. I'm just watching them again. Well done!
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Comment number 2.
At 22nd Jan 2011, Simon wrote:Ive got a picture of a woodcock during in the day in the snow which has been done though. Can I send it without signing up to flickr or do I have to?
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