Remind me not to go twitching...

Much against my better judgement, I went twitching after work last night (again).

Things didn't start too badly - we headed for the Red-footed Falcon (see Steve Blain's photos) at Marston Vale Country Park. On the walk along the cycle path on the way to the bird, we came across this Common Toad, which I had to stop and photograph:


Regrettably, there was no sign of the Red-foot, nor of much else. A group of bored-looking birders was loafing in the area. But we did bump into Tom McKinney and Miss Sarah Cole, which was good, and agreed to meet up in the Boat Inn at Thrupp, our next destination, where there is a Scops Owl...

Tom had already been once, on Wednesday night, and witnessed some amusing scenes. The bird had been clearly audible but could not be seen so easily. To get from one side of the tree where it was to the other, you had to go through a kissing gate, which only allows one person through at a time.

There were around 400 people trying to get around in a hurry, so twitchers started hurdling the fence next to the gate, with predictable results: 'It was like Becher's Brook in the Grand National... one bloke caught his leg on the fence and fell into a blackberry bush...'

There had also been sporadic fighting in the cramped conditions. Great!


Big lamps were employed to try to pinpoint the bird's location, but were unsuccessful (though it did keep calling). Disappointingly, there was no fighting while we were there, but we did spot Lee Evans. Ha.

We saw the bird several times, but always as a silhouette as it led the assembled crowd a merry dance


In the end, following the owl around got a bit boring and it was late, so we went home.

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Gardens

This is the old swimming pool I keep going on about...

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Emperor

Female Emperor, egg-laying

What a girl!

I'm more fascinated by dragonflies than ever, and the old swimming pool at The Lodge is a great place to watch them. Emperor dragonflies are very much in evidence at the moment so, of course, I want to get some photos of them...

But when they either fly around constantly (so fast you can't even follow them with binoculars) or perch on lilypads right in the middle of the pool, it's not very easy.

Today I finally managed to digiscope a female Emperor ovipositing (that's egg-laying to you and me) in the pool. The first photo was taken without the scope as the sun was behind clouds and she was near the edge, but the rest are digiscoped.

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

Manx Loghtans

One of this year's offspring

A senior ewe (or so I thought - apparently this individual was lambed only last year! It's the stately horns that do it...)

Miss Curly Horns 2006

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

It's too hot!

Singing Wren

Mute Swan family

'There once was an ugly duckling...' Not really. Aren't they lovely?

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly caterpillar

We spent this morning searching for Yellow Wagtails on the Nene Washes. Probably not a very good idea. Not only did we fail to find any, but by the time we finished, temperatures were getting near the 30 degrees Celsius mark. Too hot for me, with this humidity!

The highlights, in the absence of any wagtails, were dragonflies. A few Hairies about, including a mating pair, lots of Four-spotted Chasers and an assortment of damselflies, with quite a few Blue-taileds.

With a bit of luck, we'll get some big thunderstorms to help clear the air.

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

Flower-power

To use a cliche, the gardens at The Lodge are a riot of colour at the moment. Because they're all organic (and peat-free), there are loads of insects everywhere you look, which in turn is great for birds, of course.

Silhouette of Azure Damselfly

Garden Chafer, Phyllopertha horticola

Ants and aphids

These shots were all taken before 9am. I was hoping for some slightly less frisky dragon- and damselflies, but most weren't out at that time. I know that lunchtime is too late, so the optimum time must be around 10am...

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

More of the same...

Azure Damselflies

Large Red Damselfly

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Mmmm, bright colours!

Azure Damselflies


Large Red Damselflies

Look, I know I take photos of the same insecty things every day but by the time I get to go out at lunchtime, it's way too hot for anything to be sitting still - apart from Large Red and Common Blue/Azure Damselflies (the latter two I still can't ID with confidence...).

Bumblebee on thistle

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Bring Your Snake To Work Day

This morning we had the most exciting meeting in the world... ever.


It started as normal but descended into chaos when this five-inch long Grass Snake (Natrix natrix) made its appearance under our meeting table. Lucinda said 'What's that?!'. I looked down to see a small, dark, elongated something slithering its way under my chair.

My initial reaction was to go 'Gahhh!' but I think it's only human to do that - a meeting in the office is not where you expect to see a small snake. I recovered my normal composure and managed to ID it before it disappeared under the partition and out of sight.

After it was refound a couple of minutes later, the whole department went snake-crazy and gathered round to coo over the cute little fella.



We then released back where it had come from - the gardens outside.

A few weeks ago, the Guardian Newsblog had a post about the wildlife seen from people's offices, but I don't think they extended that to wildlife that made its way inside offices. Shame...

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995