The threatened rain never materialized this morning, instead there were some pleasant sunny spells. It felt very humid and the wind for once was more welcome!
I made a concerted effort this morning to try and find a passage migrant, scouring the the scrubby areas around the Greenhouse Grounds, the hedges and ditches at the bean fields, and the paddocks at Migrant Alley, but not only was it lacking in migrants it was lacking in even the most common and regular birds! At this time of year birds flock up in mixed feeding groups, and I suppose if the flocks are not in your area then it all goes quiet, well thats what I put it down to!
On the plus side I did hear a
LITTLE OWL (
58) calling fro the small holding as I left the house first thing this morning, one more for the August list :-) The only other species to join the months this morning list was a
COMMON BUZZARD (
59), seen as I sat at my sky watching seat at Migrant Alley, three other Raptor species were recorded, those being the ever present KESTREL, a HOBBY and a PEREGRINE, but I couldn't find a Sparrowhawk, would have been nice to achieve five raptor species in the same visit :-)
60-70 GREYLAG GEESE flew over in varying sized skeins on their morning commute south, with them today were a few CANADA GEESE, they will be seen again this evening as they all go back north, tracking over my house. Small parties of SWIFTS were moving west, stopping only briefly while circling high over the sheep pasture, a lone HOUSE MARTIN was also seen. The only other species of note seen on my 90 minute sky watch were the three gull species, LESSER BLACK BACKED, HERRING and BLACK HEADED.
I didn't visit the rest of my patch today, so Long Tailed Tit and Mistle Thrush, both still missing from the months list, will have to be found later. I made two further visits to the Greenhouse Grounds and Migrant Alley though, hoping for a Wheatear, Whinchat or a Sedge warbler, but none were found - maybe i'm just a bit too impatient, as looking at my records over the past eleven years, the 'chat' species dont generally show up until mid August :-)
Oh well, back to the butterflies then!
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| Female Common Blue |
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| Female Common Blue |
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| Small Copper |
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| Small Copper, no longer looking its best :-( |
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| I reckon this is a candidate for an Essex Skipper ? |
Whilst on the Butterflies, I'll post up the rest of the Clouded Yellow images I took on Saturday :-)
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| Clouded Yellow |
6 comments:
I agree, Essex Skipper for me too. A very nice selection Warren today.
Marc,
Even with a close up photo I find it difficult to tell this species apart from small skipper!
Clouded yellow...you lucky lucky boy!
If you had fibve species of raptors in one session the pheasant pluckers would be down like a flash with their larsen traps, pole traps, poisoned baits and good old shotguns! -Allegedly ;-)
Cheers
DaveyMan
Warren ,
Certainly wouldn't disagree with your Essex Skipper ID .
Re. 'open wing stimulation' with the Clouded Yellows , be sure to post the pictures whilst your doing it .
Nice stuff and your species count for August looks very good so far, it really seems to be static here at the moment!
Won't be long before the first passage Wheatear, Whinchat or whatnot is heading your way, I'm sure. Great butterfly pics, that female Common Blue is a beauty.
Think I might have started something with my comment on Greenie's blog about Clouded Yellow social niceties the other day :)
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