Hiatus!

A trip to Kettlewell on August 26th to try to find a small colony of scotch argus butterflies proved surprisingly successful on a day of sunny intervals and showers. The butterflies moved quickly among the long grass and bracken but dived down out of sight as soon as the sun was obscured by cloud. I wasn't able to get a photo as the day wasn't settled enough for the butterflies to sunbathe. Two camera views of the general location plus a photo of a rabbit hunkered down in the wind but letting me get very close!

Near Kettlewell Near Kettlewell Rabbit

At home on the 27th August I photographed some house sparrows in a bay tree in the garden.

House Sparrow House Sparrow

A trip to Blacktoft on August 30th just to spend an hour or two on wader watch. Nine species of wader plus some water rails [and the crake still present] Blacktoft was good entertainment. Here are a few blackwit and ruff photos.

Black-tailed Godwit Black-tailed Godwit Black-tailed Godwit Black-tailed Godwit Quite a few ruff present but I'm pretty sure these are all of the same bird...

Ruff

...and it is striking how short-necked and long-necked the same bird can appear in different shots!

Ruff Ruff

'Much about?'

'No. Just rumours... Someone mentioned black-eared wheatear at Frampton... We'll have to see how that develops!'

Note: it turned out to be a soggy northern wheatear!