6th-18th August
August sleeps!
I am still here and pottering about in Yorkshire! Not much cooking, really. Anyway, here's my latest report.
August 6th: St. Aidan's
Little owls tempt us back to St. Aidan's.
Little Owl
August 9th: Blacktoft
Very quiet, just somewhere to go. One of the few occasions [the second ever, I think] that I didn't see a marsh harrier. Little egrets still impress even though we take them for granted now.
Little Egret
Sitting in Marshland, after about 20 minutes I spotted some...well, can you see them?
Snipe
Yes, snipe.
Snipe
August 13th: in the garden and St. Aidan's again!
What is this? Any suggestions welcome. It may be some sort of hawk moth but I can't find a caterpillar photo to match. Spotted by Sheila on the edge of a compost bin!
Unknown caterpillar
It was actually rather small!
In the afternoon we went to St. Aidan's - my third attempt to see the clouded yellow butterfly that had been reported a few times. Previous visits were either windy or a bit cold. This time we struck lucky: lifer butterfly for me. We walked from Oddball to the Astley Lake causeway to spot it but, thanks to another visitor who encouraged us to keep going, we caught up with it as I suddenly saw it drop down quite near us. [He had a bike!!]
Hand-held 500mm lens - it works for me. I find quite a few insects don't let you near enough to use the macro lens.
Clouded Yellow
Clouded Yellow
The little owls [2 seen] performed well for us - much to Sheila's delight.
Little Owl
Little Owl
August 15th: Saltholme
Deadly quiet there too and the white-rumped sandpiper flew off about 40 minutes before I arrived. So instead here's more snipe and more egret!
Snipe
Little Egret
August 18th: Nosterfield
A little stint was reported at Nosterfield a couple of days previously. Then, yesterday, great excitement as it was decided it was either a western sandpiper or a semipalmated. I got up early but not as early as Alan Whitehead who trekked it from Holmpton near Spurn to spot it. However by lunchtime it had been decided [from photos] it was a little stint after all. Not even a year tick. Sad face...but that's birding. If we saw what we hoped to see every time it would all be pretty pointless, wouldn't it?
Anyway, here it is. Distant record shot of the former semipalmated sandpiper then western sandpiper and, ultimately little stint! Still a pretty bird.
Little Stint