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Showing posts with label Green Veined White. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Veined White. Show all posts

Monday, 4 June 2012

A mixed lot

I may be gone for sometime soon... toys and pram with service provider, in the meantime;


For once I'm glad it's raining, on several counts really, water is so precious and we take it for granted but the fish will be glad of it, as will anything that grows and I can start catching up on all the jobs I have neglected, including posts on this blog. As a regular visitor, you will know sometimes the posts are for my benefit and to some extent I suppose this is, nothing earth-moving I am afraid but a place to post some images and keep a record of things, gives me some clue as I can't remember what I had for breakfast.

The local damselflies have been late this year, perhaps that cold wet spell we had in April, go out at the right time and I can count 18 blackbirds or more, all worming. Blackcaps have been singing but seeing them has proved very tricky but I managed a male out in the open. A Green Veined White and one that isn't! 

There are a large number of breeding Wrens hereabouts and again I caught this one singing out in the open for a split second. The male blackcap and wren were in the same location and while waiting for them this Scorpion fly landed in front of me and it seemed daft not to take a photo (at least I think it's a Scorpion Fly).

Again I am blessed with a number of Song Thrush hereabouts and they did used to nest in next doors garden, but no longer. I was concerned they had been 'disturbed' but in the last few weeks I have come across as many as four at any one time, like the blackbirds, out 'worming'.

There have been the odd sighting of the bullfinch and nothing more than that and an illustration of how difficult they are to see, let alone capture (and so you know I'm not making it up). The Mute Swan simply because I was shocked when processing to see how 'black' the surroundings were and had it not been the vegetation top left it is almost 'artificial'.

A picture of a Chiffchaff which has been singing for a month or more and driving me nuts, you can never see it and similarly a Willow Warbler for comparison, although the scale is not the same, but you can se the longer primary projection on the Willow Warbler.

And a quick snap of a female blackcap as I didn't want to disturb it as I moved on.

Red damselfly, late this year
Blackbird worming
A Green Veined White
and one that isn't
one of the many trogyldytes trogyldytes
(I just love the name)
Male blackcap in the open
Scorpion fly
Song Thrush out worming
Male and Female Bullfinch
a disappearing male bullfinch... one day!
left, Chiffchaff, right Willow Warbler
(note longer primary projection on WW)
not to same scale/proportions, WW is bigger
female blackcap with food
The more observant of you might have notived I began this blog stating it was raining, well it isn't now... how long it has taken me to get this post up here!

Saturday, 19 May 2012

A few bits and pieces


Over a month ago I spent a quiet hour with a Dipper up in Bowland, unfortunately I chose the wrong time of day and the sun was against me, while I took a number of photographs all are in shadow, gloomy and frankly not very good. Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed watching these engaging birds. Wonderful. While I was there a male mallard came along not twenty feet away and started feeding underwater. Mad!

I'm hopeless at most things (including birds), become dyslexic and type all sorts of nonsense, so if you do see any errors or mistakes, please do advise.

On the way out of Bowland, the sun had set and the grouse were just settling down for the evening and there was quite a lot of activity (where's my twelve bore?), I managed to catch one male and then surprised myself by capturing two males together. I do need to practice my Grouse call!

What I think is a Green-Veined White pigged off a male Orange Tip by not disappearing when 'attacked'; an early start at Newton Marsh was quiet apart from the regulars, except 32 Whimbrel that didn't hang around too long unfortunately.

As for the Oystercatchers, again I don't know what it is about these birds – were they a Friday afternoon job, something go wrong in the planning or somebody having a 'larf? When you look at them, they do look 'odd' but great.

Dipper in shadow
Male Mallard feeding

male Red Grouse

two male Red Grouse

Green Veined White
Lapwing
Redshank
Shelduck
Whimbrel
Oystercatchers