Rtas' wildlife pics

It's a shame robins only live for a year on average.

Thank you Roger and Andreas !

Adam, indeed, I saw three tame robins disappear when I was in Reading.

I think it is time to show you my beloved Mandy since I talked about her on my collection topic.


Species : Mandarin duck

Spot : Whiteknights lake, Reading, Berkshire, UK
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I had a love story with this female mandarin duck when I was a student in Reading. Her name was Mandy and she had been tamed by my friend, the "robin whisperer". I used to spend whole afternoons with her, by the lakeside, looking after her chicks. She recognised me and came to greet me anytime she saw me. Well, I have to admit I always brought her some food, that may explain why she was so friendly ! I loved her so much that my friend named her mate after me : Ben. She will always be "the duck of my life"

She's a gorgeous girl isn't she. My local park has many species of waterfowl, including 20 or so mandarins, 50+ Canada geese, 100+ mallards, 2 white fronted geese, 7 greylag, two embdens and a breeding pair of great crested grebes.

I am still trying to convince my mother for a duck and she's responding no. How can I convince her for a pet duck?

Such wonderful stories and wonderful photos

I had a tame Eurasian magpie when I was a teenager.
He/she was a very intelligent bird

If the winter is hard there are usually robins living in my stable, but I can't feed them because of the fear of attracting rats
Sometimes one will sing it wonderful song inside, - amazing how loud such a tiny bird can sing !!!!!

The Marsh tits are not very shy.
They are absolutely lovely

When I lived in London I went to a large park there called Richmond and they also had a large number of Mandarin duck.The park also had deer,both Red and Fallow and lots of Green Woodpeckers.Even though Mandarin duck were introduced to this country and they are doing well it may be a godsend to this species as they are threatened in their natural habitat.

Thank you for sharing your story with us Susanne ! Corvids such as magpies are indeed the most intelligent birds

Taos, I know Richmond park, I did not have the opportunity to visit it when I was in the UK however.
Indeed, the British are much more tolerant with introduced species than the French who are exterminating every alien species even if they do not harm local biodiversity. Like the sacred ibis in Brittany... I may share this sad story with you tomorrow if you wish.

Adam, why would you keep a mandarin duck captive in the UK where they are supposed to be free ?! Try to tame a wild one instead, like Mandy

Yes,it would be interesting to hear about the Sacred Ibis.Not sure if we are as tolerant as you say!but saying that they wanted to try and cull the Ring necked parakeets in the London area and there was a great uproar about it so that quickly got shelved!There is a very large roost in an area called Esher which is just outside London.Glad you have heard about Richmond Park.Its very large and beautiful with a lot of wildlife in it.

Well I had 12 mandarins and I bought them at a local auction as I was a very big duck and goose fancier age 5. They lived in a large enclosure with 5 Aylesbury, 7 Cayuga's, 20 Ebdmens, 20 Toulouse and 7 wood ducks.

I love the picture of Mandy!

I wish I had a picture... about 10 years ago we had a thunderstorm that produced very high damaging winds. After it passed, we were out in the backyard eyeing the pool and lawn furniture that had mysteriously appeared there. Our dog got very upset and led us to a spot in the grass. There we found a cedar waxwing, alive but unable to fly. We had recently lost our 17 year old budgie, and his flight cage was still set up. We put 'Little Brother' (not sure how he got that name) in it, and started buying assorted berries, worms and grubs for him. Quickly he started refusing the berries picked off the myrtle trees that his flock mates were eating, then the worms... soon he had us trained. Blueberries and waxworms only for His Nibs. After a few weeks and him moving nimbly around the cage, we tried to release him. He was having none of it. Even if you caught him- he wasn't fearful acting, he would bite you and scold like nothing- and tried to toss him in the air, he would come right back and to his cage. After several months, we gave up. He lived 5 years with us, blueberries and waxworms the whole way.

Beautiful photography!

And Kelly, that's an awesome story. I raised 2 starlings and set them free after their mom abandoned them (she had made her nest in the neighbors grill and once it started to warm up and the people got more active outside she split. I think they were male and female but I am far from a bird expert...). And now when I see starlings near my house I wonder if they are my great great great great avian grankids.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful stories, that is also what this thread is made for !

Species : Sacred ibis

Spot : Guérande's salt marshes, southern Brittany, France
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is not one of my best photos but it gives me the opportunity to tell you about a sad story I mentioned with Taos yesterday.
The sacred ibis, that beautiful bird well-known for being revered by ancient egyptians, was accidentally introduced in southern Brittany by a zoo. It is actually one of the most enchanting zoo I know as most animals shown there are free to wander in the park as they wish, without any fence to stop them. Contrary to the majority of captive birds, this zoo's ibis were not pinioned and as a result, some of them escaped and started to nest in surrounding lakes and marshes. They did very well in their new environment and became a very common bird with up to 5000 individuals in western France in 2006. However, many ornithologists did not like these newcomers and saw them as an invasive species. They lobbied the ministry of environment into exterminating the sacred ibis in France. They used one particular and isolated observation to prove that the ibis were a threat to local species of birds like the terns. Indeed, ibis had been seen scavenging eggs on a tern colony which had been previously ravaged by foxes and those ibis-haters used that isolated case as a conclusive evidence that ibis had to be destroyed in order to save indigenous biodiversity. Then, the slaughter began. Ibis were shot and eggs were massively sterilised. Of course, a few scientists and birdwatchers opposed the butchery and complained about it, but in France, the general public do not care about wildlife issues and there was no "great uproar" as there was about the ring necked parakeets' culling in London for example. The ibis were annihilated, until one of the greatest wading bird specialists in France released a study in which he proved that the birds were no threat to local biodiversity. He showed that individuals which had been seen scavenging terns' eggs were opportunistic specialists and that the vast majority of sacred ibis rather fed on spinycheek crayfish, another much more harmful invasive species ! He also showed that ibis colonies had supported the return of an Eurasian spoonbill nesting population in France since spoonbills enjoy the ibis' company and feel safer within large ibis colonies ! But it was already too late, the damage had been done... Now there are less than 300 ibis left and this one is one of the few survivors. I have known sacred ibis since my childhood, when they were still numerous in Guérande's salt marshes. It is a species I am deeply attached to and their slaughter drove me mad. Invasive species are one of the most important biodiversity issue throughout the world but French sacred ibis were exterminated whithout any previous study about their impact on local biodiversity. Now we know that they do much less harm to tern colonies than herring gulls or foxes. They were destroyed only because they came from elsewhere. That's what I call xenophobia.

Oh, a nice ibis :)

Very good story Ben, it really shows how anything alien in France is exterminated until someone realises the creature is helping or doing nothing wrong to the local wildlife. On a visit to Portugal in 2016 I saw for the first and only time these birds.

Sacred ibis in my opinion aren't very attractive birds. They have shabby plumage, and ugly bald heads. I sound like a hypocrite but I like bald ibis, even though they have pink bald heads with jet black plumage.

My mother thinks the same as you about sacred ibis. To the contrary, I love them, but I am not very objective since they are birds from my childhood

very very beautiful photos Ben
For sure you have an eye and skills to catch them in a very good way :)

Thank you Kosta !

Species : Red fox

Spot : Whiteknights campus, Reading, Berkshire, UK
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This one will surely please Roger and I had the idea of publishing it while I had a look at his collection topic. It is not one of my best pictures from a technical standpoint but I am deeply attached to it and it has a huge emotional value to me.
Everyone who has been to England knows how common and familiar British foxes are, even in big cities. Nevertheless, they still are quite difficult to photograph, especially for a beginner with nothing more than a point-and-shoot camera like I was back then. For me and my friend, the "robin whisperer", shooting a fox was like finding the Holy Grail ! Fortunately, I had a fox family living just outside my student room. I saw them wandering around, playing and fighting from my window, I heard them howling quite loudy in the night. But approaching them to take a good picture was not easy as they were mostly active at night. Once, I got caught by the security guards in the night, with my camera, close to a student's room window, and I had a hard time explaining them I was hunting foxes and NOT trying to photograph the pretty young lady who was living there ! I was definitely not lucky with foxes of my neighbourhood but I had a great opportunity at a time when I least expected it...
One day, I woke up early (or just got up after a night without sleeping, since my room mates had been partying all night long ) to do a long nature walk in order to watch oystercatchers. I left my room, stepped over the body of a drunken student, and started to cross the campus. It was still very early in the morning, wildlife had not been chased away by students yet, and I saw from afar, sitting next to a portcabin, a tiny red fox cub. Of course, I was super-excited ! I took my camera and tried to approach it carefully but as I was getting closer, it fled under the portcabin, right into its hole ! I was a bit disappointed but quickly come to terms with it and I decided to continue my journey.
In the evening, after seeing the oystercatchers and many more fantastic birds, I was back in the campus, approaching the portcabin again. I thought that maybe, the fox cub would be outside, out of its hole. This time, I was coming from the back and as a consequence, the fox cub would not see me getting closer and closer. So, I got around the portcabin and found myself face to face with this adorable baby fox ! It only lasted a few seconds, me looking at him and him looking at me, but I had time to take one picture ! It was probably one of the most memorable moments of this year I spent in Reading. That was when I truly found out that I loved wildlife photography, that I loved hunting animals without killing them. This picture may not be perfect, it is a bit too dark and it could be sharper, but I still consider it as my most beautiful trophy from the UK.

Oh what a hilarious story Ben! I never realised a story about photographing foxes would be so amusing. I love foxes but my father isn't keen. As we have a farm foxes are the culprits to the poultry deaths. I tried to catch a fox on my trail camera but all I got was a few magpies and my cat.

My auntie struggles more with foxes as she's a commericial hen farmer and she gets around 150 eggs per day.

Great picture.As you say foxes are very common in the Uk and I see them on a regular basis either on my way to work or frequently on the railway sidings as foxes really like these as they can rest and sunbathe without any interference!I recently had to help one of my neighbours as she had an injured fox in her garden and as she was going out she asked if I could let the wildlife rescue in to collect the fox which I did.By the time they came to collect the fox it was moving around more freely so hopefully it would just be released!

So very sad about the Ibis,a touch of the exotic to France!

Adam, yes, I saw that you lost chickens recently, because of foxes.

Taos, I guess that kind of story often happens in Britain : foxes are so numerous in urban areas that there should be a lot of casualities and injuries because of human activities.

Our second culprit of poultry deaths are weasels. They slide through the wire and as my father calls them "the secret killers" because after setting my trail camera up it somehow didn't catch the weasel dragging one of the hens under the fence, but in the morning a trail of feathers from the pen leads to a dead chicken behind the horse stable.