Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
27th July -12th August 2015
Over the hills and far away...
Part one
It's been a long time coming...
Before I really got going on my trip down south I spent an afternoon 0n Monday July 27th at Blacktoft. Not much going on really but a juvenile yellow wagtail popped in at Marshland...
...and some ruffs came close to the hide.
On the way home I paused to watch some untickable guinea fowl.
But ultimately it was all my niece's doing. She had decided to get married...and I was to turn a wedding weekend into a slightly longer bird and butterfly tour of Hampshire and 3 counties beyond. I began before the wedding by spending a whole day at Martin Down NNR on Thursday July 30th. Here I saw my first ever chalkhill blue butterflies. Only two of them but there would be more another day!
Two views of Martin Down.
An Essex skipper landed close by.
Walking on I spotted a yellowhammer [juvenile looking like a baby chicken!] and a stonechat at the same moment.
I soon met my first of many dark green fritillaries. A choice butterfly in Yorkshire, they showed themselves to be regular in most places I visited including down on the coast. Let's see a few.
Oops! Frightened him off!
More Essex skippers and brimstones were about too...
...and look who's coming up the stem.
If the name dark green fritillary worries you I can see a bit of green on this one!
A burnet moth was weighing down this field scabious.
Feeling tired after a very long walk and approaching the car park I passed through a large area of scrub and bramble. A tiny butterfly gave me a big surprise!
My first ever small blue. Could scarcely believe they make butterflies so tiny! Undersides a bit like a tiny holly blue.
I only saw the one but I saw more another day.
Last dark green fritillary for now.
Martin Down comes in two sections - the downland itself and a much smaller wooded section north of the A354 Salisbury to Blandford road. I decided to see what the woodland had to offer...
Skippers
Brown argus.
Marbled white
White admiral
Then a real treat. I suspected I had seen a silver-washed fritillary fly past me at speed in one of the glades but then more co-operative specimens allowed me to take their picture...
These two images shows why they are called silver-washed.
Finally, to complete a full house of about 19 butterfly species seen that day, a gatekeeper and a comma.
I spent the night in Salisbury [Wiltshire] and ate at the Boat House by the river. I spotted a water vole on some debris floating in the middle of the river by the Waitrose supermarket! Good to see! Friday 31st July I headed into Dorset to Fontmell Down. The view from the Down is wonderful as shown in this short iphone clip.
I soon heard the low gruff calls of the local ravens.
Gatekeepers were numerous wherever there was some scrub cover.
Peeping through the gorse I spotted a linnet.
Meadow brown on bramble.
Common blue.
Fontmell Down is in the flight path of light aircraft taking off from the busy Compton Abbas airfield. They come pretty close overhead!
A buzzard [not photographed] and a distant red kite were soon seen off by the ravens.
Peacock
I headed south toward Lulworth Cove in search of another lifer butterfly, the Lulworth Skipper. My arrival at Lulworth Cove was not encouraging: a car park with hundreds of cars; lots of people with dogs; huge visitor centre selling tacky trash and the smell of fish and chips. Yet I was amazed to see butterflies amongst all this. It was very warm with only a very gentle breeze. Picture postcard views!
I moved away from the crowds towards a large patch of thistle, bramble and nettles near the cliff top. This proved to be an excellent ploy...
The lovely dark green fritillaries again...
...and marbled whites a-plenty!
A large metallic green beetle caught my eye. I think it is a rose chafer beetle. Rather stunning!
Next I was delighted to spend some time photographing an amenable painted lady.
A brown argus showed deep in the vegetation. I managed to get a clean shot.
Then I saw my prime target, a Lulworth skipper! It was chased off by a gatekeeper before I could get a photograph. Annoyed at my failure to get the shot I spent some time looking for it. Eventually it showed again. Note the crescent markings on the wing. Lulworths are also a bit darker than the other skippers.
I had time now to take more notice of my surroundings. Looking out to sea the view of how the rock strata have been thrust upwards and back again involves unimaginable forces. Geology gets real as you take in a view like this.
I headed for Basingstoke and the wedding. Time to put my wanderings on hold!
Saturday August 1st I spent part of the morning before we were due at Silchester Hall visiting the Roman town of Calleva [green woodpecker tick] with my son Malcolm, his partner Alison and our grand-daughter Evalyn. At the north gate we met a gatekeeper!
Malcolm spotted a buzzard overhead.
Holly blue butterflies were seen along the still substantial Roman walls.
Whilst they went to get ready for the afternoon's ceremonies I decided I had time to walk round Silchester Common.
Who is this peeping over the bracken?
It's the beautiful silver-washed fritillary.
Tempted to think I had seen a silver-spotted skipper but on reflection it's a large skipper.
I also saw one of those butterflies we are lucky enough to see back home in the garden - a speckled wood.
At the wedding venue I was impressed by an enormous magnolia - magnolia grandiflora with flowers a foot across and a scent of pineapple.
Sunday 2nd August back on my travels! I went first to Stockbridge Down NT, east of Stockbridge. Great place! Chalkhill blues seen even in the car park.
I spotted the much shyer females too.
I believe this is a bluer than usual common blue female - also at Stockbridge Down...
...and a holly blue.
I drove south to the Isle [well, nearly] of Portland. Geographically it is a tied island - a term for islands joined to a larger land mass by a spit of debris, in this case Chesil Beach. The plan was to visit two Butterfly Conservation reserves - both in sections of quarries that have been worked out although working quarries are still close by. First I called at Broadcroft Quarry in Easton. Small blues abounded.
A rather tatty female small blue.
Another basking in the reflected heat from thrown-away packaging.
A rather worn-looking skipper.
Common blues and chalkhills present too but no sign of any silver-studded blues, alas!
Common blue
I moved on to Perryfields Quarry reserve very much within a working quarry.
Chalkhills
Burnet moth
Marbled white
Slightly unusual view of a marbled white.
I drove down to Portland Bill. A birder took me to the tip of the Bill to watch a couple of balearic shearwaters through our scopes. Amazingly good views pretty close in following a fishing boat. The shearwater caught a fish scrap and was then 'mobbed and robbed' by the bigger gulls, pushing it under water. Happily it recovered and continued to fly along behind the pack of gulls but keeping a little further back out of trouble. A quarter of an hour's great viewing experience. Sorry no photos but I did snap at a great black-backed gull as it flew over my head.
Knowing I had an hotel booking in Exeter I couldn't linger too long. I went down onto Chesil Beach. Pebbles!
Views from Chesil Beach looking east.
Monday 3rd August from my hotel in Exeter I went to Bicton Common and then East Budleigh common looking for butterflies.
Small heath and small copper.
I was pleasantly surprised to see graylings in good numbers.
A yellowhammer watched me from a dead shrub.
I got down low to photograph this dragonfly. [Yellowish stripes on legs = common darter]
A large skipper and a green-veined white near the car park.
A large stand of acanthus [a plant introduced by the Romans] looked splendid on the edge of the common. Exeter was a large roman settlement named Isca.
I left Devon for Woody Bay in North Devon. I had two targets in mind. The first was to see Chelfham Viaduct the largest bridge structure in Britain on a narrow gauge railway. Number two: to see the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway's first section of fully restored line. Maybe in my lifetime the railway will awaken fully. Glory days:
On Monday 30 September 1935, the day after the railway closed, a wreath of bronze chrysanthemums was laid on the Barnstaple Town Station stop block. Sent by Woody Bay resident Paymaster Captain Thomas Alfred Woolf, R.N. (Retired.) it bore a black-edged, hand-written card on which was written:
“To Barnstaple & Lynton Railway, with regret and sorrow from a constant user and admirer. Perchance it is not dead but sleepeth".
Here's the viaduct.
And here's the railway itself at Woody Bay station.
Video clips. Including the bit where I lost my balance and nearly ended up rolling around on the floor!
Tuesday 4th August and a late departure for Spurn to pick up a black stork in the Well Field.
Distant views I'm afraid and we waited in vain for a fly round!
End of part One
Scroll down for the conclusion!
6th-12th August 2015
Over the hills and far away - Part 2
I didn't know I was subject to a blog size limit, so here is the concluding part of my latest adventures.
Larophiles may like this...
Thursday 6th August I got up early and headed for Pennington Flash in Lancashire [well, it used to be called Lancashire!]. On arrival I strolled over towards the hide [having been before I knew it was close by] and immediately saw the bird swimming along by the path. Bird? What bird?
Oh, just a sabine's gull.
First view - and then it came nearer!
Under attack from b-hg!
I then drove to Preston Dock in the rain to look for a ring-billed gull. Easy. it was on the nearest wave-breaker.
Action shots!
On Monday 10th August I drove north to near Trimdon to look for some reported little owls in a former quarry.
Three birds seen.
Two birds.
Camouflage!
Small heath butterfly in the quarry.
Next stop Low Gelt Sand Quarry near Brampton, Cumbria. I paid my money at the car park and set off. It rained heavily and I was glad of the RSPB gazebo at the watchpoint.
if you look along the fence line at the top of the quarry, roughly centre picture, a dark splodge marks the recess where the bee-eater tunnel is located. It was great to watch the birds in the scope coming and going to the nest. Distant flight shots were the best I could manage.
Finally I reach the last entry in this very long two-part blog! Wednesday 12th August was indeed a glorious day. I set off early for Blacktoft to see a spotted crake.
Juv robin round my feet in the car park.
The light isn't good at Blacktoft in the mornings, especially on a day of bright, harsh sunshine. The crake did its best!
No, it's not a moorhen!
It was then on to the Humberston Fitties to see a pectoral sandpiper.
Stop hiding from me!
I moved down onto the dipping platform to watch the pecsand. Some dunlin came close. One came spectacularly close!
Preening time.
Final call was at my beloved Chambers Farm for a butterfly walk. Nothing new to report but some nice butterflies including good numbers of painted ladies.
Two silver-washed fritillaries also seen and purple hairstreaks but they didn't pose for me!
Meanwhile, at home, Sheila had two unusual visitors. We often hear the song thrush in spring but he is rarely seen near the house. This one came to the bird table by the house and Sheila managed to catch him!
As I arrived home she also managed to grab a shot of a southern hawker dragonfly that had flown into the house. We released him unharmed - but not before we got a photo!
250 birds UK 2015
18th-25th July 2015
Just bumbling along for a week...
Saturday 18th July began at Old Moor with a very distant wood sandpiper. A heron watched the greensands which were much closer to the hide.
The light was bad to catch the greensands well but a bit of raw processing helps...
Juvenile avocet and...
...a pair of lesser black backed gulls.
Barry and I walked back to the visitor centre. The gatekeepers were everywhere. Butterflies I mean!
In the garden hide by the visitor centre a bullfinch came so close I had to step back inside the hide to get a focus.
We drove on to Frampton Marsh which proved a disappointment: we couldn't locate stints or other rarity sandpipers. We made do with a ruff and a godwit! End of story!
Sunday 19th was another anti-climax. I joined Barry at an RSPB Peregrine event at York Minster. As I arrived a peregrine flew past the twin towers and vanished within a fraction of a second. That was all I saw. Certainly left me scratching my head...
As for bird photos, well, feral pigeons don't often get a look in but this male was certainly strutting his stuff!
Which brings me to Tuesday 21st July when I met Barry at Blacktoft some time during the morning; left him as he had to be elsewhere in the afternoon and moved on to Alkborough and, finally, spent half an hour at North Cave. All in all a very good day! Let's start at Blacktoft with a black-tailed godwit.
One juvenile black-headed gull amongst the godwits. Little egrets marching in time... [black and white image]
...and a distant male Montagu's harrier.
Later, I saw some green sandpipers.
Spot the snipe! No, that's not its name! I mean can you see his beady eye?
We had a slightly better view later.
Spotted redshanks flew off from Marshland.
They came back later and came close.
Four spoonbills were feeding at Alkborough. Unusual to see them awake!
Avocets, avocets everywhere!
On the deck and in the air!
Butterflies at North Cave. Male small skipper.
Gatekeeper.
Commas.
This is why it's called a comma. See the white mark? Could have called it a fish hook or an apostrophe or just a squiggle!
Red admiral.
Meadow brown.
July 22nd: Saltholme. Common tern juvenile begging for food and getting it!
Great crested grebe juvenile at Paddy's...
...along with barnacle geese...
...and at Saltholme hide a little ringed plover along with a sand martin that somehow crept into the shot - in focus too!
Common sandpiper there too.
As I walked back a mippit was collecting food for its moppets.
Friday 24th July
En route to Bempton from Forge Valley I spotted a field of poppies at Folkton.
Bempton Cliff. Saw a whitethroat and a big bee! Am I bothered? Doesn't look like it!
Like me, he was just bumbling along too.
Gannets cannot be ignored even when I say I've taken enough gannet pics. Problem was they were flying temptingly high, right in front of me!
I was really planning to try to get some nice juvenile kittiwake shots. These two fulmars looked good.
Eventually I got quite a few kittiwake photos. Here are the best of the bunch!
Weekly round-up nearly done. Last entries in the diary relate to Saturday July 25th
Barry and I paid our first ever visit to Ogston Reservoir in Derbyshire. We haven't really been to Derbyshire much if at all. I knew an osprey was lingering there and we saw it within minutes of our arrival. It never came close however and after things had gone quiet we left for Wragby and Chambers Farm Wood. Never lets me down even if I don't quite see what I hope for. We had fleeting views of 3 white admirals between us, lots of squiggles - here's some...
A small skipper decided to give itself a home on Barry!
Here's a beautifully marked female large skipper.
We saw a few brown hawker dragonflies but Barry cleverly found one perched. Very nice.
For me, however, the find of the day [again all credit to Barry] was this fabulous beautiful demoiselle - my first ever. Always end on a high note!
Birds 2015 UK: 244
15th-16th July 2015
Lady Chatterley's coal mine and paying homage to the Emperor!
[All in one day!]
On July 15th in the afternoon I decided to have a run out to Kiplingcotes to look for marbled white butterflies. I parked and began the walk to the reserve. I never got there for I was soon among the marbled whites along the old trackbed.
A rather battered ringlet appeared as well as the meadow browns.
I had time to call at North Cave. Small skipper female.
An orange coloured cardinal beetle.
A common blue damselfly.
Blue tailed damselfly.
Meadow browns up close.
Small skippers.
The sex brand [black line on wing] shows this is a male.
Gatekeeper.
Thursday 17th July took me to Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, once owned by the Chatterley family of Staffordshire. A red-footed falcon had been delighting the crowds for some time so I decided to go see. I left the M6 only to read on the pager that there was 'no sign today'. Perplexed I decided to carry on. Good job. They had found it hiding in a sycamore tree by the time I arrived.
What a star performer it turned out to be. Have a look. Through someone's scope I had my first sight of the bird in the top right corner of his tree.
He flew to a telegraph pole. Not that close to us.
And then, well, he just decided to put on a magnificent show. Star performer of the year!
Time for a break. On the wire near the birding crowd!
A black redstart was also present but inside the colliery compound.
Now it may seem overdoing it but I decided to drive overland to Wragby, east of Lincoln next to call at Chambers Farm Wood again [third time recently] just in case... I gave my self 75 minutes to do a circuit. I picked up 2 silver-washed fritillaries but failed to get a photo as I tried to get too close. Should have got the record shot and then closed in. Still I carried on. Essex skippers were about.
As were a few white admirals.
Then I spotted another perched on the branch of a tree. Motionless. This time I took the record shot first and then moved in.
I checked it out in the bins. Hang on, I thought. Could it be a Purple Emperor, a butterfly people dream of seeing...
Birds UK 2015: 243
4th July -12th July 2015
Little Bittern Nightmare!
Just for a year tick I certainly put in the effort and the miles. First abortive trip was to Old Moor on July 1st [see previous posting]. Next trip back to Old Moor was on July 4th when another sojourn in the Bittern Hide [or Hide of Bitterness!] led to another failure! I photographed a few birds in desperation... It's never a waste of time to be out birding as these pleasing images show.
Reed bunting
Reed warbler
Probably the nicest set of reed warbler photos I have taken. Large skipper also posed for me.
But no little bittern. I told my wife I would not be going again...
July 7th: I fancied something different after the frustrations of the damned bittern! I headed south via Blacktoft but the spotshanks were asleep and a little distant. A little egret flew in.
This shot amuses me!
Xerox held 3 green sandpipers.
I headed south again, aiming for Frampton Marsh to see if I could add a white-winged black tern to my year list. A few blackwits were close to the road.
Little egrets were plentiful here, too. Some birders don't spare a glance for avocets and little egrets these days yet they are both very photogenic birds. Remember when they were both exciting birds?
Here's a sort of cattle-little egret!
I eventually saw the tern then lost it over towards the 360° hide. Found from the hide. Here it is!!
Now, here's a challenge! It took me a bit less than forever to spot the bird's black head moving from side to side as it watched everything overhead. Look in the very centre of the picture for a black head cap. That's it. Eventually after about 30 minutes it took off. I was poised...
I returned home via Chambers Farm Wood for a quick break. A broad-bordered bee hawk moth was in the Butterfly Conservation garden. Moth in flight - amazing stuff! [With the 400mm lens]
Let's have a closer look!
Small tortoiseshells were there too.
Thursday 9th July was not a good day. I was taken ill with a virulent stomach upset [leaving the details to your imagination] in a hide at Tophill Low. Somehow I got home, with stops, and retired to bed. I slept for hours that day and night but was much recovered by the Friday. At Tophill Low I somehow managed a few photos of a kingfisher.
Saturday 11th July: The Nightmare continues!
The little bittern turned up at Swillington Ings. 'Showing well' quoted the optimistic pager. 'Showing well my foot!' my father would have said. We knew where it was: in a small patch of reed at the crossroads at the end of the causeway. Black-necked grebes were in the distance. I photographed a few common terns as they flew close. Some shots were blurred; some had no bird in them but the next photo is uncropped. Rather like it.
Meanwhile Darren Starkey, Fairburn Warden and, funnily enough, former pupil from my days at Millthorpe School, was keeping an eye on things.
I never saw the bird and nor did anyone else until much later that evening.
On Sunday 12th July the plan was to go back to Chambers Farm Wood in Lincolnshire to look for butterflies and then drop in on Swillington Ings on the way back for the bittern if it had been reported. However shortly after setting off it came up on the pager. I decided to go there first instead as it it tended to show well in the mornings and then disappear until evening. By the time I got there it had. Disappeared, I mean. Some brief sightings were called from the birders stretched out along the reedbed. I may have seen it briefly but I wasn't sure. I certainly missed other brief sightings.
I decided to give it until 11.15 when I would leave for Lincolnshire. I moved to the bench at the crossroads. At 11.05 something flew up into the air in front of me and dropped down again. I was sure this time. 'Did you see it?' someone called. 'Where did it land?' 'Went straight down just there,' I replied and pointed.
Nightmare over.
Little bittern. 241 2015!
I did go to Chambers Farm Wood. A few pleasing results: white admiral...female
Male.
...first gatekeeper of the year...
...and hummingbird hawk moth. Much trickier than the bee moth to photograph: so fast! Anyway, here it is.
Tommy Steele in Half a Sixpence: What a picture! What a photograph!
More later. I hope!