Sunday 3 July 2011

Another glorious morning for wildlife watching, - clear, sunny and warm :-)

I made the same route around my patch as I did yesterday morning, getting to Migrant Alley early before any disturbance, there is always a slim chance of finding a returning migrant now its July, I have recorded Stonechat, Black Redstart, Whinchat, as well as flyover Whimbrel in this month, but there were no such goodies today, only the ROOKS, JACKDAWS, WOODPIGEONS, and skimming SWALLOWS were in the paddocks.

I checked up on the SPOTTED FLYCATCHER in the College Grounds, and found it perched on a bare branch, from where it pounced on grounded insects, a classic pose for this species ( below )

I also went over to the small trial garden, where all the action was yesterday, but it was pretty quiet there this morning, only the BLACKBIRDS and DUNNOCKS remained, not far from this place is a row of fir trees, which had a good mix of feeding birds in, including a family of COAL TITS, GOLDCRESTS, BLUE and GREAT TITS, and LONG TAILED TITS one of which can be seen below :-)


I left the College Grounds by way of the adjacent stream, which was fortuitous, as a KINGFISHER (55) flew upstream calling, giving me the briefest of views. A few minutes later as I crossed Migrant Alley again, the first BLACK HEADED GULL (56) of the month was seen flying over, and two LAPWING (57) that flew over the Greenhouse Complex a little later was a pleasing addition to the July list.




By the time the first half of my walk was finished I had recorded a total of 47 species, thats a very good tally for half way, but then just 5 species were added to the day list, on the second half of the walk! One of those was a Juv. GREEN WOODPECKER, a good addition the the Pittswood confirmed breeding list :-) On the lakes both CANADA and GREYLAG GOOSE (58) were seen on the ornamental lakes, while in the Scrubby Woods TREECREEPER and BULLFINCH joined this mornings sightings, overhead a PEREGRINE was circling - the third day in a row ive recorded one.




Whilst In the Tree Nursery I found this Brown Argus Butterfly, the first sighting since the 4th June.





Also, seen along the hedgerow at the Tree Nursery, was this Red Eyed Damselfly, the first time Ive photographed this species on my patch, i'll add that to the Dragonfly page ( see top right of blog page)


Below is another White Legged Damselfly - easily the most abundant damselfly on my patch at the moment


Lastly, the hoverfly, Volucella pellucens, I got a reasonable flight shot of this one today :-)


10 comments:

Chris said...

Lucky you sunny and warm!! We are going back to autumn over here already both in terms of birds and weather! Gosh the season did not even started ;-) Beautiful shot of the flycatcher...

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Keep scanning to the East . Yesterday , 1230 , near Paddock Wood , Golden Eagle sighted .
See Sussex OS recent sightings .
Could be the one that has been at large in Sussex for the last 21 months .

Warren Baker said...

Chris,
You need a holiday mate :-) Come and visit!!

Greenie - Golden Eagle ! Surley an escaped bird - can't put that on my list can I ??

Pete Woodruff said...

Yes, a classic pose for the Spotted Flycatcher and one I've thankfully become very acquainted with once again this year particularly in the Trough of Bowland Warren....MAGIC.

Jason K said...

Stunning Brown Argus Warren...a nice crisp second generation one by the looks of it. I will have to keep an eye out at Shenstone this week for them

Kelly said...

...love the photo of the Spotted Flycatcher. It reminds me just a touch of or Phoebe the way it's perched. Glad sunshine abounds for you right now! I have a bit of catching up to do on your posts!

Wilma said...

Great birds and insects! The hoverfly in flight looks somewhat like a flying pig. :-)

cheers,
wilma

Sharon said...

Great shots Warren - especially like the Hoverfly :)

ShySongbird said...

I don't know how it can be July Warren, it seems like it was only February yesterday!

Lovely flutter photos.

Alan Pavey said...

I like the Spot Fly Warren, nice composition, it was a glorious day yesterday :-)