Swallows

These young Swallows were lined up on our garden fence this evening. Their parents came to feed them, depositing insects in the waiting beaks in mid-air refuelling manoeuvres.

video taken with Canon Powershot A640 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Things that fly

One in approximately 24 billion attempts to photograph dragonflies in flight. Still not sharp, but I can't afford to be fussy


This Hummingbird Hawkmoth fed on next-door's Buddleia before visiting our Lavender and mint


Small Skipper

Bumblebee on Lavender

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Garden birds

We did a little light ringing this morning and caught a total of 25 birds (2 retraps) in one net.

It was most noticeable that we caught lots of Great Tits - nearly all juveniles - but only one Blue Tit, one that we'd ringed in February. Have they had a bad breeding season or were they just somewhere else?

• Great Tit, 11 (+1 retrap)
• Greenfinch, 5 (3 juveniles)
• Chaffinch, 3
  
• Goldfinch, 2 (1 juvenile)
• Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 juvenile
• Whitethroat, 1 male
• Blue Tit (a retrap from February)
  

It was interesting to see some moulting going on. This adult male Great Tit was a good example.

After a hard breeding season, he's growing some new head feathers...

and getting some new wings

Two of the juvenile Great Tits we caught showed the same 'fault bars' in their tail feathers. When their food supply was interrupted in the nest, the feathers stopped growing properly and that's visible now. Since the patterns were the same, I wonder if they were siblings? Who knows.

(Here's a photo of a young Sedge Warbler showing similar bars)

We caught what must be the male Whitethroat that arrived in April and has been singing ever since. That was nice. It'll be even better if someone else catches him on migration later in the year.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Bunting hunting

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Post-work

It wasn't much cooler than lunchtime, but we stopped off in Potton on the way home to look for Marbled Whites.


They were there, but elusive. Another visit required...


Small Skipper


Large Skipper


The world's tattiest Small Tortoiseshell?

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Aquatic life

It's too hot and humid at the moment for me to stay out for long. I preferred foggy Norfolk, to be honest. But here are a few images from a quick lunchtime wander.


Waterlily


Azure Damselfly cleaning its bottom


Azures mating


Large Red Damselfly

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Updated: Vote damselfly

Thanks if you voted for this photo (number 4) in the Guardian's garden wildlife poll.

We won!

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D and EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

The foggy coast

Back from a long weekend in Norfolk, in which we enjoyed different climatic conditions to the rest of the region. Winds blew mist in off the North Sea and kept the cloud cover to 100% for much of the time. The result was we didn't suffer the sweaty heat that everyone else did, though it was still fairly humid.

Stiffkey Fen

The beach at Titchwell

We camped at Reedham, right next to the Yar, and not far from Strumpshaw Fen, where we started Saturday.

There were orchids-a-plenty. This might be a Southern Marsh Orchid, or apparently it could be a hybrid. I have no idea. To me it's just a pretty pink flower.

Loads of butterflies about, with Small Tortoiseshells most common

Female Emerald Damselfly

Male Black-tailed Skimmer

Very Hairy Caterpillar, probably a Vapourer moth

Next, Upton Broad, a Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve. Here we skored Swallowtail butterfly - a mighty impressive beast, the first I've seen since a holiday to France when I was 11! - Norfolk Hawker dragonfly and...

What appears to be a Variable Damselfly

Lots of Large Skippers, too.

Another pink flower, which might be Herb Robert. Remember, I don't know anything about plants

After that, we went up to the north Norfolk coast, which was somewhat less productive, but still enjoyable: Ruff, Spotted Redshank, lots of cute, fluffy Avocet babies

and a Hobby being mobbed by a Black-headed Gull

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or with Canon Powershot A640

Cliffhanger

Bempton Cliffs


Gannet


Guillemots




Kittiwakes


Puffin

Today I've been to Bempton Cliffs, on Yorkshire's east coast. Took a lot of photos; deleted a lot of photos. Here are the excuses: camera ignorance; too much sun; birds too white; birds too fast; grass too long; sun in wrong direction. Etc etc etc.

Whingeing aside, it was fantastic. As we arrived, a party of schoolchildren was doing the same. 'Wowwwww!' they went, which is the correct response. The air was full of birds of different sizes; it's hard to get a feel for the height of the cliffs, but the tiny specks on the sea below - auks and Kittiwakes - give an idea of scale.

The sight of Guillemots, Razorbills, Gannets and Kittiwakes wedged onto tiny ledges, high above jagged rocks and rushing waves, never fails to boggle the brain.

There's a constant racket of raucous calls.

'Kitti weeeekkk!'
'Raaaarrrrrhhhhhh!'
'Gah gah gah gah!'
'Klaaaaa kla kla kla kla kla!'

The most common human 'call' is 'Is that a Puffin?'

It also smells a bit, but you get used to that quickly.

Here's Bempton, the movie (with sound). Prepare to be underwhelmed by my camera work once more...



photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

digiscoped photos taken with Canon Powershot A640 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece