Oldt1mer - Keith's photos with the keyword: Male

The lovely little Azure Damselfly – Coenagrion puella – is very common throughout the UK and found pretty much anywhere there is water, be it small ponds, larger lakes, streams and small rivers. The male is blue and black and is similar to the Common Blue Damselfly whereas the female is green and black. Seen at Pennington Flash. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

This beauty is the male Banded Demoiselle – Calopteryx splendens – which is a species of Damselfly which flies with fluttering wings similar to a butterfly. The male, as you can see, has broad dark spots across the outer parts of his wings whereas the female has translucent pale green wings. Mainly found near slow flowing streams and rivers the female can lay up to 10 eggs per minute for 45 minutes which is a lot of eggs for such a slim narrow body. This one was spotted landing a number of meters away so is quite a big crop. Happy that the camera and lens did so well. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

The Chaffinch – Fringilla coelebs – is widespread throughout the UK and can be seen in gardens, parks and farmland as well as its more natural habitat, woodland. Prized as songbirds, they used to be caught and caged with even competitions to see which bird would repeat its song the most often. Thankfully, those days are long gone. They eat seeds, buds and shoots, fruit, insects, earthworms and even snails eggs as well as food put out on bird tables. This lovely male was seen at Martin Mere. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

These two male European Greenfinches - Chloris chloris - can be seen in this picture but just imagine when green buds start sprouting and then become leaves, you really have little chance of spotting these beautiful birds unless they come out into the open. The greenfinch is widespread throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia and has been introduced into Argentina, Uruguay, New Zealand and Australia. These two were seen checking something out, possibly a female, at Martin Mere. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

This is the male Northern Shoveler – Spatula clypeata – in its breeding/winter colours. Originally classed as Anas clypeata, a study of DNA sequences caused it to be moved into the Spatula genus. It feeds on aquatic invertebrates such as crustaceans and plankton by swinging its bill from side to side and filtering the food through small comb like structures on the edge of its bill. This one was seen at Pennington Flash. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

The Wigeon - Mareca penelope – is a medium sized Duck with a round head and a short bill. Eating mainly aquatic plants, grasses and roots it is a ‘dabbling duck’, meaning it feeds mainly on the surface of the water rather than diving for its food. I was lucky to catch both the male (foreground) and the female side by side at Martin Mere Wetlands. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

The male Eurasian Bullfinch - Pyrrhula pyrrhula - is a striking bird, being much more brightly coloured than the female. Also known as the 'Common Bullfinch' or simply the 'Bullfinch' (as it is the original bird to bear the name Bullfinch), it is a normally shy bird, living in woodland and forests but is also be found in hedgerows and even parks and gardens as long as there are trees (or feeders) to feed on and dense vegetation to nest in. They can be a pest because of their habit of eating the buds of fruit trees in spring causing crop shortages. (In England, for centuries, every parish would pay a bounty for every Bullfinch killed. Thankfully that is not the case now). In other seasons they eat mainly seeds, insects and buds of late flowering trees and shrubs. This perky little fella was giving me his best Penguin impersonation (and showing off a dusting of yellow pollen on his chest) at Pennington Flash. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.