Tuesday 16 August 2011

It was overcast dull and windy today, and the birding was as dull as yesterday was exciting!

Apart from a family of BLACKCAPS and a SPARROWHAWK seen at the College Grounds on the way into work this morning, there was very little to see today. My usual visit to Migrant Alley (twice) didn't turn up any migrants today, not even many SWALLOWS were around, the best I could muster was 4 GOLDFINCH'S on some thistles. The walk over to the lakes and scrubby woods was even quieter, I heard just a single CHIFFCHAFF, and saw a few MALLARDS on the water.

No birds of prey were seen flying over this afternoon, but there were a few LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULLS. That was about the extent of it today, but given I had such a good day yesterday, I can put up with an off day :-)


Above is a Goldfinch on the thistle heads.

Below are the butterfly photo's I took yesterday, Common Blue, Brown Argus and Small Copper.








5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The wind did it for me today as well, Warren.
Smart flutter pics, again.

Warren Baker said...

wind looks to be going round to the east tomorrow - might be interesting Dean :-)

Pete Woodruff said...

Nice to read your report and look through your pics again Warren. It must be said, I can't cope with too many off days though, but I've had to do recently including today.

Wilma said...

We have the commas and red admirals you have over here on the west side of the Atlantic, so I know what size they are. But as I have watched various British bloggers post shots of the blues over the past couple of years, it has slowly (I have no excuse) dawned on me that they must be pretty small little things. What are their dimensions?

cheers,
wilma

Warren Baker said...

Wilma,
The 3 butter flies I have posted are roughly similar sizes, the Common Blue is about an inch and a quarter, whilst the Brown Argus is just an inch!