Wednesday 17 June 2009

The usual afternoon stroll produced few things of note, especially as a strong wind had come up. Most of the 2 hour visit was spent around Migrant Alley, as the scrubby headland there provided a bit of shelter from the wind.
It was here that I found a few Large skipper butterflies, a Speckled Wood, and an Emperor Dragonfly - very impressive.

Birdwise it was SWIFTS, SWALLOWS and a few HOUSE MARTINS that claimed the attention for most of the time, but a KESTREL hunted around the paddocks and maize crop for much of the time I was out, and a male SPARROWHAWK came through on the prowl, but it was easily seen by the Swallows and PIED WAGTAILS, and their alarm call gave it no chance of surprising one of the LINNETS or STARLINGS, small gatherings of which were on the sheep pasture.

HERRING and LESSER BLACK GULLS passed overhead, but that was it for the skywatch. On the way home a Painted lady Butterfly was seen by the greenhouses, looking the worse for ware, it seems a long time ago now that they were pouring through the countryside!


Below is a couple of pics. of a Juv. Pied Wagtail, it was picking off insects from the horse manure pile, along with Juv. HOUSE SPARROWS and a ROBIN.



Above is a Male Large Skipper, told by the black scent glands on it's forwing, below is the Female. ( If Ive been learning from Greenie correctly that is! )

Below is the now tatty painted Lady.

Below is a Cherry tree that was by the manure heap. It was full of ripe fruit, and so a good place to stake out for feeding thrushes and the like, so I thought! But not a single bird was interested in the Cherries. It seems only the insects are favoured at this time of year. You can see how windy it was today by the bent branches!






9 comments:

Greenie said...

Warren ,
I am impressed -
with you getting the Large Skipper gender correct -
and for me giving you the correct information , this time .
Spent today strimming paths up on the Ridge , with obviously no wildlife at all .
Hope to get back to normal tomorrow .

Warren Baker said...

All I need now is to find a small skipper! will I know it if I find it!

Anonymous said...

Great Pied Wag shots, Warren.

You`ll know when you see a Small Skipper. They`re smaller ;-) and they`ve got plainer upperwings.

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
I guess you still got a nice day even if birdwise this was not as impressive as usually. At least you got some butterflies and nice shots of them. Here was a sunny day for once, and it was also independence day, so free time for a nature ride.

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Hi Warren - down your way you've got to be very careful with Small Skipper cos you get the almost identical Essesx Skippers too, look at the underside of the tips of the antennae. We don't get em up here yet but a few more years of global warming and we will.

Cheers

Dave

Ken. said...

Hi Warren. Nice pictures of the Skippers.. He's a good teacher that Greenie.Your photo of the Painted Lady is about what a lot of mine looked like today.
Thanks to you and Greenie I have been looking at more wildlife in between birding these days.It's surprising what's out there.

Kelly said...

...those skippers are beautiful. i love their bright color, and being able to identify the gender...impressive!

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: Very cool photo of the skipper.

Jann said...

Enjoyed seeing the wagtail and skipper. It's so hard to capture butterflies and moths...hmm, kind of like birds. Nice photos.