Thursday 28th May, 2015, Peasholm Park, Scarborough and the sea front. In Peasholm park we found this little bird, I am not sure what it is. It would be known, in the birding world as a LBJ-a little brown jobby! I am thinking chifchaf or garden warbler. It was lovely to be there. The trees up the ravine are enormous with a fantastic canopy and are cathedral like. In addition to this we spotted a greater spotted woodpecker chick.

Week commencing 25/5/15 we had a fantastic birding week. On Tuesday 26th May we went to Washington WWT and had a great time! There were a number of rarer birds there as part of their conservation effort but there was also the common garden birds as shown here. These birds were baited at a bird table filled with various foods. It even included a squirrel proof cage which wasn't squirrel proof at all! I've never seen so many bullfinches in my life, certainly not as many in one place. There were at least 4 who came to feed including one female. 

 These pictures are taken with a 500mm mirror lens and even though they were quite close, these are still cropped, but they are well focussed with a lot of detail in the feather even at ISO 5000 in most cases. The highlight was the jay-a very cautious bird, not seen at close quarters at all, and the greater spotted woodpecker that managed to find the fat and peanuts stuffed in the tree bark. You can tell its a mirror lens because the bokeh (the out of focus circular blurry bit behind the birds) is caused by the mirror lens.

 I also like the picture of the magpie that had found a food stash in the tree. You can clearly see the blue iridescence on its wings beneath its white feathers. Its a stunning bird close up.

Avocets are always a joy to see. Such a smart and delicate bird but one with a temper! They often see off birds feeding close to where they are.

Iceland off the holiday list

Iceland-off the holiday list

I have wanted to go to Iceland for 30 years, I believe the country to be spectacular for photography, then I saw this film. Puffins being killed by locals for food, eggs taken from birds nests on a sheer cliff face to give an alternative to battery eggs (and sold to local supermarkets)-when a simple solution to that would maybe be to create a farm which provides eggs from chickens that aren't battery farmed (!). Then rounding up wild horses taking them straight to market, new foals, and the stress of coming into contact with humans, awful. One man in the film said that being one with nature and the horses was being in tune with nature and having respect for it, I think he was confusing respect for domination. I wont spend my money there, I'll make the best of what

NG5 wildlife sightings

One of my favourite places is a small reserve close to where I live. In recent months this year, the following have been spotted:
3 herons, numerous teal, red crested pochard, coots, moorhen, mallards, blackcap, wren, and jack snipe.

Sightings yesterday were mallard, greylag geese, a small heron, wren and I think a blackcap heard. Also seen were a flock of long-tail tits and goldfinch were heard. Red crested pochard were still there.

Lea Meadow and Bunny Old Wood, Leicestershire, East Midlands 18/04/15

 

We had a great day out yesterday! First we went to Lea Meadow then Bunny Old Wood in Leicestershire in the East Midlands in the UK. They were small reserves so it didn't take long to walk about, the weather was fabulous with barely a cloud in the sky. Lea meadow is, a large field basically, owned by the Wildlife Trusts. It has a small stream running through it with an oasis of trees in the middle and surrounded by trees on the outskirts of the field. It will be good to go back in summer when the field has become a meadow of wild flowers with all the life that that supports. I am looking forward to seeing the butterflies and caterpillars feeding on these and hoping to get some really good macro shots. I have decided to go for the FRPS of the Royal Photographic Society with macro images of butterflies so am hoping to hone my skills  to do this. This picture is of some of the trees surrounding the field.

This was one of the trees in the field, on the outskirts of it. Its a tree in blossom with the sun catching the blossom on the periphery of the tree. It looked stunning. I cant wait to go back to this meadow in summer when the trees are in their full regalia!

This image is of a path through the woods of Bunny Old Wood. The nascent leaves of overwintering perennials emerging during which time the spring flowers of celandine are already in full bloom.

Another images of Bunny Old Wood pathways. There are rafts of bluebells here although the picture doesn't give them credit. The path will be barely visible when the plants are fully developed and the leaves are on the trees.

I don't know what this is. I've looked in my RSPB book of 'Butterflies and Moths' and am unable to find anything resembling it, the nearest being some form of skipper. The colours don't match what is in in the book or the rings at the bottom of the wings. It is by no means my best picture but a record shot of what I was able to take before it flew away. I also saw an orange tip at Lea Meadow and recently elsewhere in the past few weeks.

I have been to the Butterfly Conservation Society website (http://butterfly-conservation.org/) and identified it as a Speckled Wood.

I have identified this as a Comma. I've never seen one before so this was quite exciting (it doesn't take much!). I found it in Bunny Old Wood on the ground.

This was taken at the small stream that separates one half of Lea Meadow field with the other. It's shallow, very pleasant and pretty but I anticipate it getting prettier when the bare tree stems are filled with leaves and the plants beside the stream are taller.

Rutland bird reserve

A brilliant days birding. Watching ospreys with the highlight of a flyby by a barn owl, twice!