Tuesday 14 June 2011

It was more like summer today, with clear blue skies this morning and no wind, making for a very pleasant walk into work :-)

On that walk, I noted my first LESSER WHITETHROAT fledgling, I had great views of it as it sat in a crab apple tree at the wooded headland over at Migrant Alley, then one of the adults came in and fed it, it would of made a great photo, if I had my camera on me! I also saw the PEREGRINES fly low and slow over the College Grounds - another missed photo op.

This afternoon, after work, a bit more cloud had drifted over, but it was still warm with some sunny spells, prompting me to have a walk around the Tree Nursery for a look for some flutters and Damsels. Despite the warmth there were relatively few about, most of those that were on the wing were Meadow Browns, but a few Small and Large Skippers were seen, plus a Small Tortoiseshell. The only Damsel was that of the WHITE LEGGED. Birdwise, it was down to the WHITETHROAT and the KESTREL, which I watched drop down onto a small rodent.

I also spent an hour over at the lakes and Scrubby Woods, where the water was occupied by the same species as of late, COOT, MALLARD, MOORHEN and both CANADA and GREYLAG GEESE with their respective goslings. In the Scrubby Woods I followed up on some noisy CARRION CROWS, and found the reason for their racket was that they had two young with them, no.34 for the successfully confirmed breeding list.

Not a great deal else was noted, all the usual afternoon songsters were heard, those being DUNNOCK, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP and TURTLE DOVE, plus not so usual, a Lesser Whitethroat. I did see a pair of MISTLE THRUSHES, they have been a bit elusive of late, one of them even gave me a photo :-)

The walk home produced a CUCKOO, it flew over the Tree Nursery heading north, but I didn't hear one call today, also, yet another Lesser Whitethroat sang, this one from the Greenhouse Grounds territory

Above is the Mistle Thrush, I was pleased with this shot, I dont get many Mistle Thrush photo's


Above and below are the Skippers, Large above, Small below





I took a couple of Small tortoiseshell photo's, I do like this butterfly :-)


Below is one of the 10-15 White Legged Damselflies that I saw


Last of all, this ROBIN was in the garden when I got home, they are looking a bit dowdy at this time of year, I haven't helped by chopping his feet off :-)


10 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

I must admit, I have always been a fan of Small Torts. myself, a classic British butterfly. I had a female Emperor Dragonfly hawking round my garden pond this afternoon.

Warren Baker said...

Emperors are seldom seen around my Garden Derek, they would get snapped up by the birds! It's the same with any Butterflies, they never stay long :-)

Anonymous said...

Cracking Mistle Thrush, Warren.

Derek Faulkner said...

Well, as you would say, that's nature.
My feeders have been discovered by the large number of sparrows in the garden now and as a result are being emptied at an incredible rate, but not by the birds that I'd rather see. Having said that I do love the sparrows and I'm glad I have so many.

Pete Woodruff said...

Nice selection of pics Warren in particular the Mistle Thrush....look how all those brilliant arrowheads are on the upper breast below the throat.

Marc Heath said...

Lovely Skipper shots Warren, you are coming very well with the camera.

Chris said...

The robin and mistle trush pictures are awesome. You send me this mistle trush and I'll send you a harlequin duck ;-)

Phil said...

Great Mistle Thrush shot Warren.

Jason K said...

ts great that you have breeding Lesser Throat on your patch Warren...I can only dream of them breeding around my patch.

Great photos again as always

ShySongbird said...

I love that Mistle Thrush photo Warren!