Bluebells

Bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta at The Lodge this lunchtime.

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

[Leaving] North Wales: Day Six

Dipper territory, Betws-y-Coed

Grey Heron

Distant Woodchat Shrike, Long Eaton, Derbyshire

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

[A cloudy day in] North Wales: Day Five

From Llanfairfechan. Centre: Puffin Island. Left: Anglesey

Looking across the Conwy valley from Caerhun church

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

[Still in] North Wales: Day Four

Black Guillemots, Fedw Fawr, Anglesey

Eilin's Tower, RSPB South Stack

Lighthouse, South Stack

Clifftop flowers, South Stack

Raven, South Stack

Pebbles on Cemlyn beach

Mist-shrouded Ogwen valley

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

[Finally in] North Wales: Day Three

Male Wheatear displaying, Horseshoe Pass

Female Wheatear feeding

Slate quarry

Pied Flycatcher investigating possible nest-hole, Coed Hafod

Coed Hafod

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

[Nearly in] North Wales: Day Two

Orange-tip butterfly (digiscoped)

Wader flock on the Dee estuary - Black-tailed Godwits, Knot and Spotted Redshank. Click for a bigger photo.

Wood Anemones (?)

Finally in Wales... Llyn Crafnant

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

[On the way to] North Wales: Day One

Black-tailed Godwits (islandica) at Sandbach Flashes

Sandbach Flashes, Cheshire

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

Isn't she lovely?

Female Emperor moth

Look what Darren brought back from the shops. He'd been out for some tobacco (of which I disapprove, for what it's worth) but found this marooned in the middle of the road. As he attempted a rescue, he waved a car out of the way, which just happened to be a police car.

PC: What you got there then?
Darren: It's a moth.
PC: Big f***er, innit! I'd have run over that!

After a brief period of refrigeration, we managed to identify it as a female Emperor moth. You can read all about them on the UK Moths website, which I wholeheartedly recommend.

Emperors are supposed to occur in open country and moorland, so I'm not quite sure what it was doing in urban Peterborough. The caterpillars' foodplants are things like heather and brambles, so maybe it inhabited a blackberry patch or someone's plant pots.

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Ancient woodland

We've been to Bedford Purlieus again...

Peacock nectaring on Primroses (Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone also on the wing today)

I think these are Southern Wood Ants, Formica rufa

(interesting website about wood ants here)

Quite big and aggressive...

New sycamore leaves

Seven-spot Ladybird

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Lunchtime twitching success

Probably the best day of the year for birding so far, but unfortunately it fell on a weekday, not a weekend or bank holiday. But Darren, Mark and I got out at lunchtime to Broom gravel pits, where we twitched three Black Terns and a Little Gull. It would have been nice to have stayed out all afternoon, though...

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

Spring flowers (again)

Cherry blossom (I think)

The first butterfly photo of 2006! - Comma


Forget-me-not things

Burnt-out Marsh Marigold (or Kingcup; a bad case of shiny yellowness)

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Bedford Purlieus NNR

Big, fierce-looking wood ants were much in evidence

Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa

Wild Primroses, Primula vulgaris, were everywhere

Pussy Willow, Salix discolor

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995