A mostly sunny morning was very welcome again, giving me hope of finding some more of those recently fledged bird species, of which I found just the one, that was the CHAFFINCH, an adult male was feeding at least two youngsters in the hedgerow along Ashes Lane.
Not a great deal else to report from my morning walk, A MISTLETHRUSH was on one of the paddocks at Migrant Alley, collecting food, on the sheep pasture the GREYLAG GEESE, CANADA GEESE and feral BARNACLE GOOSE were feeding contentedly, they were joined by 3 HERRING GULLS and 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS as I watched them.
The best of the College Grounds was seeing the SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, plus a smart male BULLFINCH, the LITTLE OWL was in its usual place at the Greenhouse Grounds, as was the KESTREL.
 |
| HOUSE SPARROW at the College Stables |
 |
| Pied Wagtail at the College Grounds |
Late morning saw me in the Scrubby Woods, where I thought I could here young Great Tits calling, but I couldn't locate the calls coming from a large oak tree canopy. Soon after, I became involved in chasing the Damsels and Dragons in the warm sunshine, again finding the Broad Bodied Chaser and the Hairy Dragonfly, the latter of which thwarted my attempts at a photo again. I also found my first Four Spotted Chaser, which I just about got a record shot of :-)
 |
| Broad Bodied Chaser |
 |
| Four Spotted Chaser. A good find here, they don't get recorded every year :-) |
This afternoon, in some lovely warm sunshine, I went over to the Wooded headland to the North of Migrant Alley, this is quite a good spot for Butterflies and Dragonflies, though not nearly as good as the old tree nursery used to be, but it did give me fleeting glimpses of Speckled Wood, Orange Tip, Peacock, Large White, Small White, Green Veined White and Holly Blue butterflies. More excitingly, I also found at least 4 Beautiful Demoiselles among the many azure Damsels, and even better than those was hearing a
REED WARBLER (
54) in full song, I tried to sneak up on it for a photo but a WOODPIGEON came clattering out from nearby and that was the last I saw of the Reed Warbler!
Walking back home with a camera full of demoiselle images, I added
HOUSE MARTIN (
55) to the months list when four flew over the sheep pasture. More sunshine tomorrow apparently, Summer is here at last!
 |
| Beautiful Demoiselle |
 |
| Beautiful Demoiselle |
 |
| Beautiful demoiselle |
 |
| Beautiful Demoiselle |
7 comments:
Hi Warren. Lovely Demoiselle shots. Haven't seen one this year. Now the weather is better and I'm not quite so tied up at home maybe I can find some.
I need to pay a visit here Warren. Never seen Beautiful Demoiselle before. I shall be in touch about meeting up where hopefully you can direct me in the right direction. I had a few Dragons today, will post later.
Hi Phil,
Go get 'em while there here!
Hi Marc,
Better be quick, they dont hang about long! :-)
What about this Saturday bout 1pm. Are you around at all then. They have quite a long flight period so should hopefully not move too far.
I will probably be about then Marc. You can e-mail me on walrusbaker@hotmail.com and exchange Mobile numbers
Great dragon and damselfly shots Warren, not only in this post but in the last one too :-) I know I have said this before but you have a fantastic local patch and I am little bit envious :-)
Post a Comment