Ogden

 Due to it being a nice-ish day, I decided to go and have a look at ogden, to see if there were any birds or insects around. It was quite blustery, but no sooner had I arrived did I find a butterfly, which was unusual in such conditions. It was a small heath, so I followed it to try and get some photos, and in doing so stumbled across some more, which were more obligeing for a photo.

-Small Heath
I made my way round the back, round the moors and golf course to reach the pools and giants tooth. At the pools there was ample water, but no dragonflies. There were quite a few frogs and large red damselflies. The frogs were all very quick and dissapeared in the pools as soon as I got there. There were a few large red damselflies, and more appeared as the sun came out, including this one that seems to have been hit by some mite, notice the orange patch on the side of the thorax.

-Large Red Damselfly
Crunching through the bracken round the ponds I finally found a dragonfly, but unfortuantly it saw me in the same moment I saw it, and did a runner. It was certainly a hawker type dragonfly, which would make it very early, unless it was a hairy dragonfly, in which it would be very northern and very unusual, which is why I doubt it. It was probably a common hawker
  It started to rain as I finishe at the ponds, so decided to head home rather than have a look at the giants tooth. Sadly, no sooner had I left the reserve then it stopped raining and the sun began to shine again. On this note I decided to have a quick look at the pond up the back lane, which is a place I have never been when its been reasonable weather. It was a wise decision, as I managed to find a handful of azure damselflies, which is not a species that I am overly famililiar with. It was nice to see, but unfortunatly I couldnt get close because there was a barbed wire wall in the way, and the farmer would probably shoot me!

-Azure Damselfly
Walking back over soil hill i was accompained by a skylark and some low flying swifts. Sadly becuase they are so quick, the swift photos were very poor, considering how close they were to me.

-Swift

Moth

Got home from a university visit to bristol to find this on the tissues in my bedroom. I have looked it up and I reckon that its a Dusky Brocade, but thats on a best fit basis, rather than a yes thats what it is. Either way, I put it back outside under the window ledge.

Little grebe

walking home from school, I regularly pass a largish pond near bradshaw park, this year there were canada geese breeding on it. Today I decided to take a moment to look to see if the moorhen juvenile had landed on this pond. It haddnt, but there was a little grebe fishing on it. The pond is bigger than ours, but still not the size you would recomend to a little grebe, so it was wierd seeing it there!

Our garden-Corvid central

After a hard day of photographing the moorhen on the pond, It was time to put my feet up and watch England get knocked out of Euro 2012. Luckily for me, there were more excting things going on, on our garden bird table. In an Earlier post I mentioned about the magpies thatare enjoying themselves in our garden, and they have been back. We put out bread soaked in chicken fat to deter them from stealing all the fat balls, and it seems to work. It also menas that the magpies come closer to the window, where I can finally get the kind of photos that I have been wanting for the past few years. There are at least two, but I think there are four. Here are the best from a well spent hour photographing these birds.

-Magpie
And it wouldnt be a corvid dentral with only magpies would it? we also had a jackdaw who stuck to the feeders, only coming to the table when there were no magpies around. We hardly ever have jackdaws in the garden, so this is an unusual sight.

-Jackdaw
We have also had a carrion crow that occasionally drops in for a light snack, just to complete the list.

Stranger things...

We have had many unusual birds in our garden over the years; linnet, reed bunting and stock dove are the ones that spring to mind, and this must be up there with them. Casually on a sunday morning whilst putting on my shoes before Church, I glance out of the back window towards the pond. There at the top of the waterfall, is a moorhen. As soon as you read this, you would think that by saying pond you would think of a large, borderline lake. However, our pond (top) is only around 2meter by two meters, so to have a bird of open water pools casually standing on the top of the waterfall was quite unusual! it certainly surprised me.
  It was very flighty, as soon as it saw us, through two panes of glass it began to move towards the decking at the back. After church we saw it hop over the wall into the field and we thought that we had lost it, but it was soon back. It was so weird watching it swim on the pond. It stayed with us for most of the day, leaving late in the afternoon, flying southwards. I wonder what on earth made it want to stay here, I wonder what it was doing. Either way, its a wonderfull sighting for the garden, if not slightly unusual...

-Moorhen

Garden Recently

Exams have finished finally, but unfortunately that means that school has re-started. Luckily, whilst watching the Euro's I have had the enjoyment of the wildlife coming to me, Namely the magpies. We have had around four magpies around, though the bird table will only support 2 at once. They normally come in, fill up their beaks and then move off, maybe to feed young. We have two fat magpies, one with some white on the tip of its head and a couple of thin magpies. When I photographed them it was early evening and the light restricted my photos, but I managed to improve on my old attempts, both these are the same bird.

-Magpie
Only this afternoon my mum called me out to take a look at a stunning moth that was hiding under some of my mums plants. I do not own the ultimate book of moths in Britain and Ireland, or whatever its called, but from my dads insect book, which has around 300 moths in it, I reckon its a "knotgrass", though I may be wrong, due to its vivid white patches where the wings meet. Either way, its a lovely moth, and I hope it doesn't get eaten, because it chose somewhere to roost where it sticks out rather like a sore thumb!

-Knotgrass moth
So there we are, a quick rundown of all the stuff that's been going on in the garden.