Monday 9 May 2011

It was quite a blustery day today, and variable amounts of cloud came and went, but some warm sunny spells also appeared.

As I walked home from work across Migrant Alley this afternoon, it was good to see a flock of at least 30 LINNETS feeding on dandelion seed heads, also a SKYARK was up singing.

After a quick drink and snack I was out by 2pm, and went over to the Scrubby Woods and lake area, where I was surprised just how quiet it was birdwise, I know the afternoons are not always good for birding, but it is May after all! The main attractions in the Scrubby Woods were the TURTLE DOVES, BLACKCAPS and CHIFFCHAFFS, which all sang, two SONGTHRUSH'S sang in competition with each other, quite something to here once they get going! A look across the lakes was had, nothing much different going on there today, 6 CANADA GEESE were on the main lake, a pair with four goslings, and a pair with 5 Goslings, but that was it, no Coots, Mallards, or Moorhens were seen.

My attention turned to Butterflies, but few of these were on the wing, the wind was keeping them down, but I did see Small, and Large Whites, Green Veined White, Comma, Orange Tip, Speckled Wood and Brown Argus. I also found another Cinnabar Moth, below.

When all else fails, there is always the damselflies to find and ID, always a challenge! This one below is an Azure ( I hope!)

Whilst this one below has me stumped, cant find it in my dragonfly book!

This next one could be a White Legged Damselfly, it does have some similarities!

This one I know is a Large Red

The last one, is a Beautiful Demoiselle, frustratingly it flew up onto a high leaf, where it was buffeted by the wind, so the photo is pretty poor :-)

Well I hope things pick up a bit soon on the birding front! I'm still 10 species behind the May record total, and still need 3 more species before the 17th to get the fastest 100 species up for my patch! If nothing else, at least we'll all be enjoying the first gangs of screaming starling young any day now :-)











8 comments:

Bob Bushell said...

Lovely dragonflies, they seem a bit early.

ShySongbird said...

I wondered about Blue-tailed Damselfly Warren but I'm sure someone else will ID it. Lovely photos of them anyway.

Unknown said...

Lovely selection of Damsels there Warren, no sign of our Burnetts at the meadow yet, can't be long now.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Snap with the Cinnabar moth , but you got the better shot .
1st. damselfly , yes Azure .
2nd. My money is on a female Azure , the end of the abdomen is unusual , but can't make it anything else .
3rd. Agree with White-legged .
Still a nice shot of the female Beautiful Demoiselle .

Anonymous said...

Well you rescued that post with the inverts. Nice one, Warren.

Anonymous said...

great to see your out and about its certainly fantastic spring this year thankyou for bringing it closer to me

Jason K said...

Thats a great mix of Damselfies Warren...I'm sure the birding will pick up...dont write of Spring yet...I think theres a bird or two left

Alan Pavey said...

Nice lot of Damselflies there Warren, I must get out later in the day to find some at Sissinghurst, you must have had a fantastic year when you were on 107 by the end of May, my best tally is only 110 for the whole year.