It almost stayed dry this afternoon, just a few light showers passed over, but the wind was up again and with the overcast sky, it felt quite cool.
I walked over to the Tree Nursery, then the Greenhouse Grounds and then on to Migrant Alley, what a poor visit it was! Just a few Meadow Brown butterflies were seen, and one small Skipper in the Tree Nursery, not surprising though given how chilly it was. The Greenhouse Grounds did give me a new butterfly for the month at least, a Small Tortoiseshell, only the 11th species for July. I also watched the KESTREL family venturing out further from their nest box tree, and a SPARROWHAWK flew into the Greenhouse Copse carrying prey.
The only flyovers seen were LESSER BLACK BACKED, HERRING, and BLACK HEADED GULLS. Of the ''summer'' species, WHITETHROAT, BLACKCAP, and CHIFFCHAFF were seen, and the local SWALLOW families fed over the sheep pasture, plus two SWIFTS were feeding up higher. I hope tomorrows early full patch walk turns out a bit more interesting!
Later in the afternoon I sat in my garden shed a took some more photo's of the garden regulars.
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| I was just 2.5 meters from this Immature GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, so I couldn't get all of him into the frame with the 500mm lens |
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| I had to fill my boots with photo's though! |
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| This shot was taken with the zoom wound back to 120mm, as far as it can go |
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| It was good to see the NUTHATCH back, taking sunflowers hearts, it was quite dark under the tree where the feeders are, I had the ISO up to 1000, the F number at 7.1, and set the exposure to minus two thirds, just to get a shutter speed of 160! |
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| At F7.1 there wasn't really enough depth of field, but the head and eye stayed in focus :-) |
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| GREAT TIT - interesting pose :-) |
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| Immature CHAFFINCH |
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| Also, the Wood mouse was back, collecting up the fallen seeds :-) |
8 comments:
Lovely photos again Warren. I wish I could conceal myself near my bird feeders but it's not possible. Still loving that little mouse :-)
What a lovely post Warren. I love the Woody and you did exceptionally well with the Nuthatch in the circumstances that you describe.
Songbird,
You could take a leaf from Christian (above) and make a hide :-)
Thanks Christian,
It's always a bit dark under my ''feeder'' tree in the summer. Its better in the winter when the leaves have all fallen......providing the sun comes out :-)
Small Tortoiseshell is about the only butterfly species I've seen this summer so far with perhaps the odd exception.
So excellent full fame shots here Warren.
Lovely photos. I guess the woodie is a young female, as the red crown's being replaced with black but there's no red on the nape? Good work with the Nuthatch shots in gloomy conditions!
Marianne,
You could be right, a bit early to tell quite yet one way or other.
Hi, can anyone tell me whether the peregrines returned to nest on Mereworth church after the refurb was complete?
Have just learned that Vivat are NOT going to incorporate a nesting platform on Hadlow Tower (which the birds moved to), which I think is scandalous.
Any thoughts?
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