Hills and Holes

Spent an enjoyable morning on Sunday 25th July at the local `hotspot` for Marbled Whites, Barnack Hills and Holes NNR. There were at least 5 Marbled Whites, plus numerous Chalk-hill Blues. There were also Common Blues, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers and Brimstones.

Again, these were taken with my pocket camera. I am quite pleased with the results!

Marbled White on scabiosa


Marbled White on centaurea

Marbled White

Brimstone female on centaurea


Chalk-hill Blue male and female

Chalk-hill Blue female


Chalk-hill Blue male on birds-foot trefoil


Chalk-hill Blue male

Chalk-hill Blue male

More butterflies

Having been the sort of person that was quite happy to look at a butterfly and say "what a pretty thing!", I have been slowly drawn in to actually start trying to identify the species and search for butterflies that I didn`t even know existed!

Here are some more photo`s that were taken at Bedford Purlieus on Sunday 18th July.


Common Blue

Silver-washed Fritillary

White-letter Hairstreak



Ringlet

Comma

Bedford Purlieus

I have finally succumbed to checking out Bedford Purlieus to see the amazing array of butterflies on show there.
I don`t have a DSLR, so all the photo`s were taken with my little pocket camera. I don`t think Peter or Mike have anything to worry about on the competition front!

White-letter Hairstreak

White-letter Hairstreak


White-letter Hairstreak

White-letter Hairstreak

White Admiral (a rather tatty individual, but the only one seen)


Small White

Red Admiral


Silver-washed Fritillary


Silver-washed Fritillary

Large Skipper


Gatekeeper

Common Blue


Common Blue


Comma

As well as these there were also lots of Ringlets and Meadow Browns.

Maxey

Finally found some time to go `birding` today and whilst it is very quiet on the patch at the moment there were a few nice birds at Maxey. There were 2 Dunlin, 8 Green Sandpipers, a couple of Common Sands and 7 Little Egrets, also a Cuckoo flew over.

Negative feelings

Whilst messing about with my photo`s I came across the `negative` facility and thought it would be fun to change some photo`s from their original format! Not very difficult to i.d. these birds, but I think it`s interesting to see the change.
Some people may say that these are better than my normal efforts!

Wrens R.I.P.

Lisa and I are in mourning for our baby wrens.

Over the past couple of days I have noticed a gradual loss of young in the nest box and a Magpie looking very guilty! Today we came back from work to find the nest bare! There is no way for the young to have fledged as they were only a week and a bit old, there is only one explanation!

Wren

The wren has finally started feeding some young, can only see two at the moment, but there are hopefully more.