Waresley Wood in summer

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

The future is orange

Mmmm... Silver-washed Fritillary

and Large Skipper

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

Back from Africa

Large Skipper - quick shot grabbed with my phone. Not bad, considering.

It's not me who's back from Africa - it's the Whitethroat on the right of this photo. We caught him last summer in Beeston and again today. Since we saw him last, he's traversed the Sahara and come back again to the same patch of brambles. Mindboggling. 

The young Whitethroat on the left was caught in the same net at the same time today, so perhaps it's the male's offspring.

You expect to see tractors out in the sticks...

...but a Ferrari is not an everyday sight in Potton

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Apple iPhone 3GS

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

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

Our survey says...

An early(ish) start this morning saw us gathering information for the Bedfordshire Bird Atlas... in Northamptonshire.

Since the 10 km square sits on the border between the two counties, records from it can contribute to both. Or something. Anyway,  our allotted patch was around Newton Bromswold. We were after any birds showing signs of... well, anything. Found Spotted Flycatcher, Whitethroat, Buzzard, Wren, Swallow, Moorhen, Whitethroat and all manner of exciting things.

We might have found even more, were it not for a Longhorn bull, his cows and calves which were in a field. They blocked our route to the opposite side of the field, so we opted out. That was after we'd negotiated the live electric fence which ran round the perimeter, including the stile! Ouch!

The butterflies were better than the birds, on the whole. An area in an environmental stewardship scheme held loads of butterflies - more than I've seen all year so far. Large Skippers, Meadow Browns, Ringlets and Common Blues ran riot. There were pleasing numbers of Small Tortoiseshells, too.






Before you accuse me of turning into a church-spotter...




...it was lovely to see the village churchyard was being managed sympathetically. Someone in Newton Bromswold cares about wildlife. There were patches of long grass, nestboxes on the trees and these Common Spotted Orchids. It was full of life.






And, unless I'm mistaken, this is a young Ostrich. There wasn't room for it on the survey form, though. Oh well.

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

Butterflies and moth

With the hot weather this weekend, I haven't been in the mood for much more than lounging around in the garden. It's been great. Butterflies have gathered in numbers on our 10-feet high Buddleia bush:

Peacock

Brimstone

Large White

Small Tortoiseshell

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Large Skipper

Peacock and Comma

And then this creature turned up:

Hummingbird Hawkmoth!
I've been growing Valerian in preparation for attracting 'Hummers' but this one found the Buddleia perfectly adequate. It did some funny things: feeding happily one second, then whizzing off at rooftop-height over the wheat field, before appearing back on the flowers again within a few seconds

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