This afternoon saw the sun disappear behind a viel of high cloud, the first time in weeks ( or so it seems ). It was still warm and humid though, and I took a walk around the Tree Nursery, one eye looking for Butterfly's the other on the sky looking for any flyover raptors. Plenty of butterflies were seen, and i took photo's of a few, but missed the Meadow Brown and the Red Admiral. The eye watching the sky picked up a SPARROWHAWK flying towards the Wet Woods with its prey, whilst my ears heard the soft 'tuc' 'tuc' of a LESSER WHITETHROAT coming from the hedgerow, I waited and got some brief views, but wasn't able to get a photo.
A quick trip round Migrant Alley to check for any early Migrants didn't produce any, maybe a bit early yet, but a group of SWALLOWS, numbering 25-30 were chasing over the Paddocks and pasture, mostly recently fledged young ones. Also seen were PIED WAGTAIL, LINNET, SKYLARK, GREEN WOODPECKER, the usual mixed Corvid flock and a few Woodpigeons. A HERRING GULL flew over, and a KESTREL hunted around the Greenhouses, and higher up in the clouds SWIFTS were feeding.
Whilst there I met a chap marking out a one of the fields that is used for sheep pasture, I asked a few questions and it seems a new horse paddock is going in, so extending the existing ones. Might be good for a few drop in Migrants.
Below are three photo's of one of the Juv. Swallows at Migrant Alley, click on the pics. to enlarge them.
The next photo's are of some of the Butterflies seen
Small Tortoiseshell
Comma
Small Skipper above, Large Skipper Below
This last Photo is of a White Legged Damselfly
9 comments:
Looks like you enjoyed a nice wander, lovely pics of the juvenile Swallow. Linda
Warren,
In my experience horse paddocks inevitably end up as areas bare of any vegetation, which are rock hard dust in the summer and quagmires in the winter but you might get some "drop-ins" in the early stages.
I was trying to look on the bright side Derek !
The sheep pasture is just as bad for wildlife, - as are the sheep :-)
Wow! Those juvenile Swallow pics are beautiful. Very good news on the breeding Linnets and especially the Spotted Flycatchers!
It has been dull here since Sunday apart from a few sunny spells, quite humid again today though :(
Lovely photos throughout!
Thanks Songbird - your comments really cheer me up no end :-)
Some great shots. I especially like the second one of the Swallow.
The new horse paddock could bring in a Yellow Wag. Saying that, i`ve never seen any feeding in our horse field.
Waren ,
Great juv. Swallows .
Look early , 7-9 on a sunny day with little breeze for the open winged PHs .
Lovely Swallow pictures, Warren.
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