Sunday 31 July 2011

Far Ings 30-7-11

With a bright sunny start today we decided on a day on our local patch with not a to early start,
arriving around 11.00.
Walking up Far Ings road we had a small warbler around Goldcrest size,dark green in colour on the upper parts with 2 prominent paler wingbars & with a call that I have never heard from a warbler before a bit like a young Dunnock tweet call but with not a long good view it flitted off back towards the Humber bridge and went back into the hedgerow please leave comment if you have any idea my thought was Pallas's Warbler but have never heard one call.
On reaching Barton reedbed entrance we was greeted by 2 sheep and the owners trying to get them back into the field with myself and mandy getting involved to block their path they ran into the road and back into the wood not what the owners wanted on the next attempt the owner got them back onto the road only for the fugitives to run round the owner and down the wrong way of Far Ings road think they got them back in the end.
With not much in bird life at the Monolith we carried on to the visitor centre photographing a pair of Southern Hawkers along the way with a few Brown Hawkers patrolling the reeds.
A couple of Common Tern on pursuit pit was about it was set about trying to photograph Swallows in flight with not much luck there either.
Whilst waiting for Mandy to return I noticed 5 birds flying towards me and took little notice thinking of them just being ducks until they flew over me and turned east to fly up the Humber that they were Black-tailed Godwits oh well that will teach me for just presuming.On mandy's return we set off along the Humber bank with Yellow wagtails flying over head and another Brown Hawker we headed for Ness Hide thinking it would be full due to the return of the Kingfisher but we was right but no locals,I over heard one talking about a duck she could see but couldn't ID it so I went to see and on telling her it was a Tufted Duck with 2 young her reply was no it isn't it's a Pintail as it's got a long neck well I just laughed to myself (No helping some folk),I can reassure her Pintail don't breed at Far Ings.
But with their noise and talking getting louder by the second mandy and myself just had enough and left with leaving them with some comments about noise and Kingfishers as if it would come and sit with that racket going on.We continued round to Target pit with more Tufted Duck present we made our way back onto the Humber bank and sat on the wall when I spotted a Wheatear by Chowder Carpark great a patch tick but 2 were present adult female and a Juvenile we set about some pics but proved to be harder than first though.
We walked upto the Phalarope spot :( and sat for a good while watching birds fly by which included 6 more Black-tailed Godwits flying west,Little Egret flew west,more Yellow Wagtails & a large mixed flock of Sand Martin & Swallow with mandy spotting a little star in the form of a Weasel poking his head up over the rocks but was unable to get any shots due to vegetation in the way.
Southern Hawker (Female)

Southern Hawker (Male)


Southern Hawker (Female)

Greylag 

Wheatear (Juv)

Wheatear

Black-tailed Skimmer

Saturday 30 July 2011

Crowle Moor 30-7-11

With Dave Hutton arranging to come and visit North Linc's today the Moth Trap was almost empty when I got out of bed at 6.30 this morning,thanks to Mandy for potting the moths for me so I left her to it as it seemed she was enjoying herself.
With the day stating off rather grey but a great garden tick in the form of a single Common Crossbill flying over calling as it headed west.
With Dave arriving around 9.45 we sat and had a coffee and a look through the moths with Campion being a lifer for Dave,we set off for Crowle Moor about a 25 minute drive we set about finding our Target of Black Darter a lifer for myself but Dave soon was jumping back has he found his own lifer in the form of a Adder,which was quite funny as he nearly fell over.
Not long after Dave shout out Black Darter so I quickly marched up to find my first Black Darter and soon finding an Adult Male & Female with an immature male close by,after a few photo's and a male landing on Dave's forehead we carried on along the footpath for 10 minutes or so when Mandy found an emerging Migrant Hawker and shouted us back Dave and myself must be blind as we walked right past it.So rushing back
we took a few photo's and decided on carrying on as the Hawker wasn't going anywhere for a good while.
The more we carried on the Horse flies got worse but lucky enough for us they didn't seem to be in a biting mood,I found a Beautiful Yellow Underwing a lifer for me and shouted Mandy and Dave to come and have a look then finding a teneral male Emerald Damselfly low down I took a few pics and again gave Mandy a shout knowing she wanted to photograph them but she flushed it :)
We also had a Common Hawker sitting on the trunk of a silver birch but too distant for photo's,we returned back to the Migrant Hawker which was just starting to get a bit of colour and took some more pics and started to return to the car for some lunch,with us all fed and watered we returned a third time to the Migrant Hawker which now was starting to dry out and get more colour we fired off more shots of it and all of a sudden it's wings sprang open and started to shake them and soon took to the air my first time to watch this and was just brilliant.
Common Lizard,Common white wave,Buff Footman,Shaded-broad bar,Small Copper,Brimstone,Peacock,Large Skipper,Ringlet,Meadow Brown & Common Darter were also present
Thanks to Dave Hutton for driving.
Black Darter (Female)

Black Darter (Female)

Black Darter (Male)

Black Darter (Male)

Black Darter (Immature Male)

Black Darter (Immature Male)

Black Darter (Immature Male)

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker




Migrant Hawker


Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker
Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker
Emerald Damselfly (Teneral)
Emerald Damselfly (Teneral)

Emerald Damselfly (Teneral)
Shaded-broad bar

Large Skipper

Common Lizard

Common Darter

Small Copper

Monday 25 July 2011

Water's Edge 24-7-11

With the weather being kind and a Wildlife day going on at Water's Edge Mandy & Myself decided on taking a walk down and see what was going on,on reaching the Carpark 6 Common Crossbill flew over heading west,a great county tick for me soon will be catching my Warwickshire list up.
With a walk around the park looking for Butterflies & Dragonflies but not much on the wing apart from a few Gatekeeper,Common Blue,Speckled Wood & a single Meadow Brown.
Dragonflies included Brown Hawker,Southern Hawker & Blue-tailed Damselflies.
Other birds encountered were Bullfinch,Long-tailed Tit,2 Sparrowhawk and a distant Marsh Harrier heading back to Far Ings.
We entertained ourselves by trying to get flight shots of House/Sand Martin & Swallows as they came down for a drink also the Common Terns came in from time to time for a shot.
Some shots below of the Falconry display Birds and a few wild shots.
Sparrowhawk

Swallow

Common Tern

Common Tern

Woodpigeon

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Eagle Owl

Harris Hawk

Harris Hawk

Kestrel

Kestrel

Lanner Falcon

Lanner Falcon

Lanner Falcon

Lanner Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

Tawny Owl

Tawny Owl

Tawny Owl