Thursday 14 June 2012

The early sunshine of the morning was fading fast as I went out for my afternoon patch visit today, but it did just about stay bright, if not sunny.

I went over and spent a couple of hours in the Scrubby Woods and lake area, the latter held 14 CANADA GEESE, a pair of which had brought 9 well grown young with them, the only other occupants of the lakes were the COOT pair and their two youngsters.

The Scrubby Woods surprised me with the amount of birdsong heard, CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, TURTLE DOVE, BLACKBIRD, GOLDCREST, CHAFFINCH and ROBIN all joined in. I watched both TREECREEPER and NUTHATCH in the same Oak tree, the Treecreeper was collecting food for its young, but I still haven't seen any fledged young yet. I also saw a Chiffchaff taking food to a nest, but again, no fledged young for this species has been found as yet. A KESTREL was up hunting over the area, no doubt trying to pick of one of the many fledgling WRENS and DUNNOCKS that are in the undergrowth. Only two each of BLUE and GREAT TIT families were found, and the only other bird seen feeding nestlings was a SONGTHRUSH.

I spent some time just walking the tall vegetation, to see what insect life flew up, below are a few photo's of what I managed to get on camera, but there were many things I missed, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, and Comma butterflies, Cinnabar moth, and a scorpion fly, plus things I know not the name of!

Tomorrow there may be no blog post, as I am getting new computer, and it may take some time to sort it out!
This is one of the things I cant name, looks like a Lacewing of sorts. Songbird may help here ?
This is a female Beautiful Demoiselle, been trying for ages for a photo of one this year  :-)
A couple of male Beautiful Demoiselles were with the female
Male Beautiful Demoiselle
Common Spotted Orchid - I think  :-)

7 comments:

Jason K said...

A nice selection there Warren...I'd love to have Common spotted orchid on my patch!

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Re. your orchid , it probably will turn out to be a Common Spotted , but could you confirm where it was growing and were the leaves spotted ?
They can be very variable as a species but yours just looks strange .
Like the Demoiselle shots .

ShySongbird said...

Lovely Orchid Warren, you do seem to do well with them on your patch. Also nice to see more of your damsels, cos there ain't any here :-(

It is indeed a Lacewing and I think it is Chrysopa Perla. I spent ages trying to get the camera to focus on one yesterday. Not sure until I take a proper look at the photos if I have a sharp one. It didn't help that the image stabiliser had somehow got switched off!

Marc Heath said...

Nice Demoiselles shots, another species I am yet to see.

Anonymous said...

Cracking macro shots again, Warren.

Rohrerbot said...

Fantastic closeups Warren! The wing detail on the insects are incredible. I struggle with that on my camera. I either focus too much on the wings and blur the head or vice versa. Crazy. We have back now for a couple days and getting caught up with work around home and garden. I accomplished two more hummingbird challenges. There are still more to do....so hopefully I'll be able to get out in the field again soon. Need a couple days to recharge and organize:) Hope you are well.

Warren Baker said...

Greenie, the orchid was growing in a woodland ride, yes the leaves were spotted :-)