Comma feasting on blackberries

Beeston

Kestrel

Meadow Pipit

We went to Del and John's ringing session at Beeston this morning. There were a few nets around the garden and a 'pipit box' out in a stubble field - a triangle of nets with a tape lure in the middle. It succeeded in attracting Meadow Pipits but also a Kestrel which dived helpfully into the nets. It was a bit grumpy and stuck a talon into Del's finger.

Elsewhere around the farm it was great to see hedges bursting with fruit and buzzing with insects.

Small Tortoiseshell

Hedge full of berries

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

Hedgerow

Bumblebee at take-off, with a shower of pollen grains




Brown Hawker


Common Darter


blackberries


acorns

At lunchtime I went for a walk down to Stratford Road, which runs along the foot of the hill. It's south-facing so tends to be a good place for insects with a good bank of bramble bushes. I couldn't resist helping myself to a few ripe blackberries, and while I did, a squirrel dropped bits of discarded acorn husk on my head.

The blackberries (and blossom) attract butterflies, with dragonflies presumably enticed by the smaller insects on the plants. I had to wade through some nettles to get close to the beautiful Brown Hawker above. The bumblebee was in the garden on my way to the lane.

More photos available on Flickr

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

Sunshine!

Red Admiral


Peacock


Hoverfly Volucella pellucens


Brown Argus


Small Red-eyed Damselfly


Common Darter


Bumblebee on Water Mint

Seven-spot Ladybird on blackberries. I haven't seen a proper ladybird at The Lodge for ages!

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, Extender EF 1.4x II

Suffolk heathland

Hobby hawking for dragonflies

Grayling basking on gorse

gorse

Robin's pin-cushion gall, made by the wasp Diplolepis rosae

Gorse and blackberries

Marsh Harrier - not a very heathy species, but it was flying over it!

Robin (without its pin-cushion)

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

White-legged

I took a different route at lunchtime today and got lucky by finding this male White-legged Damselfly. They're normally found in habitats with moving water - there's not much of that at the top of the hill - but the River Ivel runs not so far away, so I guess he'd wandered up from there.

White-legged Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

blackberries ripening already

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

Norfolk again

Migrant fuel

Red-backed Shrike

Great Grey Shrike

Shrike habitat just east of Gun Hill

Storksbill sp

Darren has a 'thing' about shrikes, so when he read that there was a Red-backed AND a Great Grey at Burnham Overy, we had to go to Norfolk, of course. I'm not complaining...

Besides the two shrike species above, we had a few other bits and pieces... Garden Warblers, a Redstart, at least four Whinchats and three Wheatears, and two Peregrines in flight - in the same scope view as the Great Grey.

After lunch at the Stiffkey Red Lion (very much recommended) we tried for the Red-breasted Flycatcher at Wells Wood. And failed. Though a couple of people reckoned they'd seen it while we were there, the vast majority of would-be flycatcher watchers went home empty-handed.

Don't really care; it was a good day out.

digiscoped photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Raindrops keep falling...

We've had a lot of rain over the past few days...

And now autumn is firmly on its way...

Some tasty-looking blackberries - migrating warbler fodder

Acorns in the making

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Autumn at Minsmere

Comma on blackberries

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995