Pittswood Birds

A day with no rain or wind was at last with me, allowing for a couple of hours out on my patch this afternoon, I spent the time looking for Butterflies and Damselflies in the Tree Nursery, initially in some pleasant sunshine, but by 15:00hrs it had clouded over again.

I had only just arrived when the sighting of a BUZZARD was had as it glided over towards where I stood, it then circled above me, I had the 400mm lens, plus the 1x4 converter on the camera, which I use for the insect photo's, but it's a hopeless combination for photographing flying birds as I have to manually focus, I did my best, and just as it circled right over me the camera battery went! I did get a couple photo's though, this one being the better of them.

Common Buzzard

A slow walk across the grassy field didn't produce many Butterflies or Damsels, just two Common Blue flutters, one Brown Argus, one Red Admiral, and lastly, but best of all, my first Meadow Brown f the year.

Meadow Brown -first one of the year

Common Blue

The only Damselflies seen today were the White-Legged variety, but I did get a short glimpse of an Emperor Dragonfly as it whizzed past

White Legged Damselfly

White-Legged Damselfly

I also kept an eye on the sky whilst hunting for the insect life, and was well pleased to see my first HOBBY (62) of the month fly slowly over, bringing the months list to 62, which is equal to the 2007 June total, but it still only reaches 7th out of the eleven June's recorded. A LESSER BLACK BACK GULL also flew over, the only other avian notable was finding the first COMMON WHITETHROAT fledgelings of the year, nice to get them on the confirmed successfully breeding list.  Not a bad day at all today.

Here's a few shots of the adult Whitethroat after it emerged from feeding the fledgling, again I wish I had my 500mm lens and my 50D camera body, talking of which it might be ready to pick up on Saturday  :-)

Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat