To destinations unknown!

Tuesday 3oth July: at home in the garden

Saw small white, large white, green-veined white, peacock, holly blue, ringlet and comma butterflies today in the garden. At least I think it was holly blue as that's the blue we normally get in the garden but it flew off over the hedge the moment I saw it. It appeared again later and disappeared over the same hedge equally quickly!

Here are the ones I managed to photograph.

Green-veined white female Peacock Peacock Peacock Peacock The comma rested briefly on a 6 foot fence top - so not a great image.

Comma This hoverfly was inside a daylily flower.Daylily / Hemerocallis Daylily / Hemerocallis

Heysham Nuclear Power Station

Thursday August 1st 2013

A long drive with a few stops on the way, eventually Barry and I reached Heysham and soon found our way to the seawall and to the outfalls of the nuclear power station. The walk was shorter than I expected; the weather was fine, sunny and getting warmer all the time.

We began to scan the gulls. I soon found a couple of Mediterranean gulls. It turned out later that there were over a dozen present. Some fine looking lesser black-backs loitered below the seawall.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls Eventually, after about 3 hours I spotted a smart looking gull with a black head and with very black underwings. Stupidly I thought I had found the Bonaparte's but it was a very smart adult little gull. Really cross with myself for not thinking 'little gull' straightaway. Anyway, about 15 minutes later Barry found the Bonaparte's on the mud beyond the first outfall. [Purely as a throwaway remark, I really have no idea which is regarded as the first outfall. The one you come to first from the footpath or the one nearer the harbour?]  We had good views in our scopes.

Earlier I had photographed this whimbrel.

Whimbrel When it flew off it only went across to  the rock armour of the outfall.

Whimbrel On the walk back I photographed small skipper and common blue butterflies.

Small Skipper Common Blue There's a fenced pond near the entrance to the informal sort of nature reserve. Barry spotted lots of damselflies and dragonflies.

Female brown hawker ovipositing.

Brown Hawker Brown Hawker Brown Hawker Brown Hawker Brown Hawker Common darter also present.

Ruddy Darter

Back to Blacktoft with Barry

Saturday August 3rd 2013

Firstly however we called at Boston Park to pick up a black-necked grebe for Barry's [soon to be!] record-breaking year list. Then it was on to Blacktoft. A pheasant welcomed me as I walked over the hump that protects the fields from the marshes by the feeder station.

Pheasant In Marshland were a good number of waders including dunlin, spotshank, redshank, ruff, lapwing, godwit plus sedge warblers, bearded tits and even an eclipse garganey. A wood sandpiper was seen fleetingly. The green sandpipers were more accommodating.

Green Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Green Sandpiper From Xerox we added avocets and marsh harriers.

Marsh Harrier Marsh Harrier Down to Townend and Singleton where we saw large numbers of snipe and egrets.

Common Snipe Little Egret Back at home a moth had spent the day on the kitchen window sill. Pyrausta purpuralis doesn't even enjoy a more common name! Still pretty little micro moth.

Pyrausta purpuralis