Clouded Yellow

I have never seen a Clouded Yellow butterfly in this country before and so I was quite shocked and a little excited to see one of these lovely flutters at Maxey GP the other day whilst having a stroll after work.

A butterfly that is a regular migrant to our shores, with numbers each year varying form just a few to several hundred. Not sure if this is a 'Clouded Yellow Year' or not, but there have been a few sightings around the east of the U.K.

Spot the butterfly!

Wood Sandpiper

Talk of my demise seems to have been premature.

With reports of a couple of Wood Sandpipers being present at my local patch of Maxey gravel pits, I managed to grab a couple of hours on Sunday to go and see if I could get a view of a wader that I have not seen locally for at least a year.

This site is looking rather good at the moment and with my first scan of the area I managed to see the first Wood Sandpiper, huddled down in the company of a Common Sandpiper. Continuing my perusal of the site I picked up the second Woody, fairly close by and also 3 Dunlin, 8 Green Sandpipers, 3 Ringed Plovers, 1 Little-ringed Plover and another 2 Common Sandpipers.

On walking back to the van, it was good to note that there were fairly large numbers of Common Blue butterflies present.

Hopefully, I will be back again soon.

If looks could kill!

Enough said?!

I am finding it harder and harder to have any time to myself just lately. Work has exploded with a vengeance,  after months of twiddling my thumbs, I now have no time to twiddle anything! Much less, get out and about and look at wildlife. Consequently, I am saying "Adieu" for a while. I may pop back if I find time for my hobby and I will continue to visit others blogs, but until then, I wish to thank you all for your continued patronage to this humble site.

I may see you on the other side.

Reed and Sedge Warbler

Two small, brown birds. Both come to Britain in the summer months in fairly large numbers in order to breed. They like spending their time in reed beds or thick undergrowth and they both have pretty similar songs.

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Below is a short video of the two birds in question, hopefully showing the difference in the two songs. The first bird is the Reed Warbler, a song which is 'chatty' and slow paced, consisting mostly of jittery notes which are repeated 2-3 times, interrupted by occasional mimicry or whistles. The second is the Sedge Warbler with a Reed Warbler in the background, this song is a series of long, loud sequences of not very varied excited notes relieved by rapid cascades of trills and whistles and occasional mimicry.

Bonaparte's Gull at Oare Marshes

Back in February of this year myself and my friend Chris Orders 'twitched' an adult Bonaparte's Gull that was frequenting a small pond in Eastbourne, Sussex, but things conspired against us and we failed to see this bird.

A couple of weeks ago another Bonaparte's, this time a first summer bird, turned up at a place in Kent called Oare Marshes NR. Today we 'twitched' again, but on this occasion we were successful in our mission.

It is supposed to be 'Flaming' June, but on arrival the wind was blowing a gale, spots of rain were hitting the windscreen and the temperature gauge dipped into single figures. Summer time in Britain. Nonetheless, the bird was seen and after giving us a bit of a run around, gave good views.

A bird that is from the States, as common there as 'our' Black-headed Gull, but is smaller and has an all black bill, along with short, pink legs.

Finally, Boney was in the bag!

Thanks, again, to Chris for driving. We must be mad!

Spotted Redshank at Maxey GP

Back to my normal sub-standard of photography today with a record shot of a truly stunning bird seen at my local patch of Maxey gravel pits for a whole 15 minutes, before it flew off, not to be seen again.

This summer plumaged Spotted Redshank was a welcome addition to my PBC year list which has now limped to 166, but does include 2 local lifers as well as some rather scarce local birds, such as the aforementioned Spotted Redshank. A bird that I have only seen twice before in the local area and not for a couple of years, so this was a very welcome sighting.