Oats Royd

This time going to Oats Royd I went along the bottom via the fields, which was much quicker and allowed me to walk alongside the river. When I entered the reserve the first thing I saw was a scorpion fly, an insect that has long eluded my camera, and has also been tricky to track down 

-Scorpion Fly

The reserve was full of insects again, the first bird I saw being a wren singing from the top of a conifer tree

-Wren

At the first pond I also found a large flock of willow warblers, possibly a family group as some of the birds looked quite young 

-Willow warbler

The other ponds were full of damselflies of common blue, large red and common blue tailed. I also found the exuvia of a dragonfly, but there was no dragonfly to go with it and since there has been no rain to knock them off it could well have been there for a good month

-Large red damselfly 

-Common Blue damselfly 

-Blue tailed damselfly 

At the first pond I also spotted a newt resting on a crisp packet. There were also loads more on the bottom of the pond but I couldn't get a better photo to identify them with, but I think they are Palmate newts judging by the lack of spots

-Palmate newt

At the far point nearest to the industrial estate there were loads of damselflies, a greater concentration than anywhere else on the reserve. It is probably the most damselflies I have ever seen in one place

-Common Blue Damselflies

On the heath next to the last pool I flushed a small heath butterfly, which was really nice though it was reluctant to sit with its wings open for a photo, so this modest effort is the best I could do

-Small Heath Butterfly 

And on the way back I also spotted a lovely male orange tip feeding, which will add to my limited photo library of this species

-Orange tip

And keeping with the butterfly theme there was also a lovely small copper resting on the path 

-Small copper

And last but by no means least I spotted this lovely greenish weevil of some description on the fens near the central pool which added to the long list of species seen today

-Greenish weevil of some description 

Dumfries and Galloway Day 4

Day four was very sunny and so we decided to go and have a look at Glenwhan Gardens which was lovely the first time we went. The last time we were there we saw loads of Golden-Ringed Dragonflies, but we were too late in the season for them this time.
  As soon as we arrived I headed onto the "moors" bit, because I had not spent much time there last time, and that was where the dragonflies. The first pool was exactly how i remembered it, and looking in the grasses alongside it I spotted my damselfly of the day, which was a blue-tailed damselfly. 
-Common Blue Tailed Damselfly
further exploration found my first Emerald Damselfly of the holiday. It was the perfect habitat for them, so I was not very surprised. It was a female, and was resting on the sedge alongside the pool.

-Common Emerald Damselfly
After looking round the first lake I decided to look up on the higher ground to see what heath land birds were around. It did not take long before I found my first yellowhammer of the holiday, a stunning male hiding in a shrubby tree.

-Yellowhammer
and even further away from the pool I stumbled across a pair of siskins in a distant tree, so I was unable to get a good photo.

-Siskin 
There were many more ponds than I remembered, though the second one I found was not buzzing with wildlife, as the only thing I found on it was this male emerald damselfly

-Male Emerald Damselfly
Back up on the gravelly path near the entrance after my loop I began to see more things, I flushed a common hawker which made a speedy get-a-way, and also found a lovely wall brown butterfly resting on the path.

-Wall Brown
I went down another path which I had missed out to incorporate my loop, and found a smaller pond rather than a lake on my left hand side, with a much larger lake about 10 meters to the right. On the small pool were two common hawkers hunting, and I spotted on some bracken nearby a lovely male black darter, my first of the year, and one that was really easy to photograph. It looked lovely in the afternoon sunshine.

-Male Black Darter
There was also a toad on the path further down. After that I headed back to the mown area near the top, next to the main lake and entrance. Here I found a common darter sunbathing on a large flat rock. I flushed it and it moved off to some cut shrubbery. Here I could see that it was incredibly dark on the underside and on the frons. It would be a bit too south for a highland darter, making this a menalistic common darter. 

-Common Darter
In the same region as the "highland darter" I spotted a female black darter, which was a nice addition to the nice growing list of species for the gardens. it was very docile and therefore very easy to photograph.

-Female Black Darter 
So without doubt the best day of the holiday. We spent the afternoon in Stranraer and then went swimming in the afternoon, because it clouded up.

Angelsey day 6

Day 6 was a dissapointing day in that we woke up to the rain and wind, meaning that it was pretty pointless trying to go and find some interesting insects. As a result we decided to go onto the mainland and go and have a look round Camarthen.
  No sooner were we there than did I spot my first bird of the day, a little egret fishing alongside the beach. Its the first of these I have seen for quite some time, and it was also quite close, so I was able to get some resonable photos.

-Little EgretWalking along the harbour wall, my brother spotted this tiny irredescent beetle on top of one of the wooden pillars, so I took some photos of it.

-BeetleAs we walked rond the sea front to the marina my dad spotted these two juvenile gulls roosting on one of the slipways, and they looked rather cute together, but it was difficult to get them both in focus at the sametime so the photos are not quite what I would have liked.

-Juvenile Herring Gulls
I could also see a cormorant in the water, and it was moving towards us. Eventually it moved close enough for me to bother trying to get a photo. And still it came closer, seemingly un-caring that I was there. Eventually it got out at the foot of one of the staircases heading down to the bottom of the sea wall, really close, as I was right at the top of the stairs. It diddnt seem to care so I took around 100 photos of it;

... It is now 2014, and reading through some posts one afternoon I have encountered this post. I have no idea what 17 year old me was thinking but this is quite clearly a young shag. Its a pity I did not notice this at the time, as its a species I do not see very often, living inland. As a result its a good thing I did take so many photos of it...

-Cormorant  Juvenile Shag
Actually in the marina there were not many birds, but there were quite a few fish, including a shanny and 3 very impressive thick lipped mullet

-Thick Lipped Mullet
Because it had brightened up we decided to go back to angelsey for the afternoon and so we went to the beach at Newborough Forest, which meant that I could go for a walk in the woods to see if there was anything about. I decided to head off towards the pool I could see on my OS map. Sadly this map was hopelessly out of date, and as a result many of the paths were wrong, and as a result I got lost
  I did my best to follow the map, but since I diddnt actually know where I had started in the first place I diddnt have much fun. Eventually I asked some strangers I met in the forest if they could help me.
  Luckily these strangers were locals who go into the forest everyday, so knew it pretty well. Apparently even the forest warden gets lost in the woods.
  Now on the right track I was able to fully appreciate the wildlife around me, though there was not much. Now that the sun was out there were quite a few buzzards overhead.

-Common Buzzard
where the sun broke through the trees there were lovely patches of flowers, and as a result there were also quite a few insects, including this large skipper.

-Large Skipper
I was now on a dead straight path that would take me to past the turn off for the pond. On the way up I spotted a rose chaffer trying to bury itself into the gravel of the path. After taking a few quick photos I decided to move it off the path incase it got run over by forestry vehicles or cyclists.

-Rose Chaffer
Eventually  I reached the pond. It had amazing promise when I was walking to it, as there was a common darter on the path in front of me. There was another on the path furthur up too.

-Common Darter
The pond was actually fenced off, which was quite annoying, but there was a gate, so I climbed over. There were even more birds here than elsewhere in the forest, with green woodpeckers and more buzzards in the vacinity. It was probablky becuase this was a very open area of the forest. The pond was actually in the middle of a "dune-y" field, and wasa an 8 shape with two islands. Or at least thats what it should look like, but it was dry in most of what should have been pond.
  On the few areas that were still pond there were a good selection of common blue and blue tailed damselflies. In terms of dragonflies there was a four spot chaser.

-Common Blue Damselfly

-Common Blue-Tailed Damselfly
Exploring the pond I was surprised to find a dragonfly exuvia about 2 inches long, on a pond with hardly any water and the only dragonfly probably had a body length of about 2 inches. I had stupidly left all my collecting pots at the caravan, so I knew returning it to the car, a walk of around 45 mins, with no pot would be difficult. I therfore would have to improvise, and after 5 mins my hands were sweating something shocking, so that was clearly out of the question. I had an I-pod, Nokia Brick Phone, camera and a map, so I decided to store it in the camera lense cap covered by a map on the widest side and my hand on the narrower side. It worked, and I got it back to a safe place in one piece
  Walking back along the dunes, so I knew the way, I stumbled across a few wild pansies which looked lovely, so I knelt down and took so photos of them, as a record shot.

-Pansy
After that we headed back to the caravan site. As we pulled into the caravan site we spotted a buzzard perched on a telegraph pole on the far side of the dog walking field. However, halfway down the dog walking field I spooked it and so I diddnt really get any photos of it.
  However looking down I spotted a damselfly in the small drainage ditch nest to the field. I was shocked as there was not much water actually in the ditch. Either way, it was another unusual sighting for the camspite.