Shropshire Day 2

Another sunny day greeted us as we woke up for the first time in shropshire. Today was train day-that being the day we would go for a train ride on the severn valley railway. Last time we were inundated with harlequin ladybirds, so I was hopeing that there would be again, now that I fully knew how to take photos of bugs and things. The train journey goes from bridgenorth, where we were staying, to kidderminster.
The journey to kidderminster passed without anything really exciting happening. Although there is an interesting bit where the train goes past a safari park-so we saw elephants, buffalo, blackbuck and rhinos.
At the train station however there were some far more interestin owls to look at and admire. The people there had brought owls to station for some reason, to highlight publicity I imagine, but it allowed me a close view of these stunning birds. It might actually have been something to do with the halloween week, as though owls signify evil spirits and stuff!!
They had about Nine owls-2 barn owls, 2 eagle owls, a boobook owl, a tawny owl, plus a little owl and a burrowing owl, Though I think the burrowing owl was actually a little owl desert form-its legs were no where near long enough for burrowing. there was also a white-faced scops owl.

-Barn Owl

-Little Owl

-Stunning white faced scops owl

-Was quite pleased with these two, Little owl face
After that we decided to get the train to "country park holt" station where would have lunch. As it happens we had lunch on the train so we got off at the station and had a coffee. This station is request only and goes into a country park, which we have used before. That also means that there are not many people here.

On the country park sign I found my first and only harlequin ladybird of the day, and managed a few shots of some standard, though they're not great.

-Harlequin ladybird

Another feature of this country park is kingfishers, which it had at least 3 last time we were here. My family were going to walk along the river straight to the next station, about 1mile away. I, on the other hand, was going to go up to the visitor center and the hides at the top of the park.

However the only excitiment was really to be found on the bridge. As I watched a hornet fly past, but I couldnt see where it went, much to my dissapointment. Then I watched a kingfisher fly past, upstream where I couldn't follow it. Then a dragonfly of some kind flew under the bridge, but I lost that as well, so I saw lots of interesting things, just not for very long.

Up at the visitor center I had a look at the info board and saw a picture of a club-tailed dragonfly. It reminded me that this river would be teeming with this rare dragonfly in the spring, only in autumn there was only room for dragonflies that chose not to land.

From the hides I saw a sum total of nothing, the only thing of interest being the mallards on the pond outside.

Walking back I had an awful experience. I casually looked over the back of a bench, as you do generally, and flushed a darter dragonfly that had rested there, which then flew away. I was quite annoyed then and re-discovery missions failed to find him. I imagine that it was a common darter based on the time of year.

At the bottom of the park, near the river, I spotted a common buzzard flying quite low. It was going to fly right over me, but its circling pattern was rudely interrupted by a mobbing crow which caused it to divert away from me, never-the-less I got good views of it.

Walking along the river was also a dissapointment. There were no birds-but maybe because of some morons on the other side of the river letting their dog run a riot all over the riverside-people like that do my head in!

cotswolds holiday day-2

woke this morning after a freezing night in a tent. as you can see below, it was a pretty severe frost...

But the sun was shining and as a result we decided to go to Bourton-on-the-water, a lovely little Cotswold's village, for the day. incidentally there is also a bird park with the only UK colony of king penguins and that was where we intended to spend most of the day.

My family went to walk round the village, but I decided to go straight into the bird park. I have foolishly left out the long tailed tit photos that I took of some stunning birds that were pretty close to me just outside the entrance to the bird park.

luckily, the first exhibit when you enter is the famous king penguins themselves and in the early morning sun and frost they looked pretty stunning. I cant remember how many there are but I seem to recall it being about 15. They share their exhibit with lots of humbolt penguins and although you can see humbolts anywhere they are still a very pretty bird.

Ha! two of them started having a scrap right in front of me. I was later told during the feeding talk that there was a very crabby penguin within the enclosure and so we can assume that he is the main subject in these photos

there are plenty of weird and exotic species here and i took photos of most of them and so I will only label the bird type because, after all, they are in cages and therefore have little story to tell about them!

seem to remember this bird being called a rosy starling, although its quite clearly not so I obviously remembered wrong!

azure winged blue pies! even in cages magpies are annoying to photograph!

Greater kiskadee

lilac breasted roller

hamerkop, nest building

crowned plover, in the desert house

Bali starling

Australian or possibly pink backed pelican

carmine bee eaters in the desert house

egyptian plover in the desert house

desert finch in (appropriately) the desert house

carmine bee eater, in the desert house!

in my opinion a smashing photo of a rhea, its my new desktop background!

African spoonbill in the big enclosure, which also, interestingly, contained eiders!

a kookaburra

a nasty owl (or burrowing owl if you so please)

some nice photos of king penguins

king penguins getting out of pool

humbolt penguins rushing to get into pool

humbolt penguin in pool

humbolt penguin out of pool, sleeping

The day passed uneventful but at night I noticed that the moon was red. I tried to get some photos of it but either the shutter speed was too low or the flash was wrong so they didn't really come out but see for yourself with what I got, a red moon curious

day 5-last day in norfolk and pensthorpe

Last Day of possibly the best holiday ever. The day was a scorcher and so we decided to go to pensthorpe, having said that, we had already decided to go pensthorpe. We wrapped up early so that we could get there before the crowds. Despite getting lost we did eventually manage to arrive. It was clear to see that the proprietors had not lost their sense of humour since last time as the "ruff road, slow down" sign was still there.

it was already quite busy and we did have to queue. As soon as we were in I went straight through to the reserve forgetting the pet zoo. It would be nice to end the holiday with a new dragonfly species and the weather was just right. It wasn't dragonflys that were showing however as there were hundreds of damselflys everywhere. It soon became apparent that the damselflys, however were all common blue. However by the river I spotted a dragonfly sp. but the darn thing wouldn't stay still which is generally a must have factor when watching dragonflys.

around half way through the reserve It became apparent that the damselflys were probably the only thing here worth watching besides lots of pet barnacle geese and mallards. Then I was about to exit the wildflower meadow when I spotted this thing in the sky. The fact that its neck is straight ahead tells enough and that this was a crane. I'm not sure If this counts, but I have already seen wild cranes at hickling broad last time but this seals it with a record shot.

I was pretty tired from standing so I sat down on the edge of the pool at the end of the wild flower meadow to have a rest. the damselflys were still plenty and so I decided to try and take some pictures. Some came out pretty well but then I spotted something fly off in the distance- something I failed at a shot of yesterday, a banded demoiselle. I followed it into a small in-let dyke to the main pool where it rested and, although it involved some leaving the path, manged to get some great record shots

I then returned to the bench I had been sat at and recorded all the damselflys I could find. Below is a concise list of every damselyfly species seen today although one of them was not taken at the site I described above.

common blue damselfly

red eyed damselfly

blue tailed damselfly-form rufescens-obsoleta

blue tailed damselfly

azure damselfly

The blue tailed Damselfly was not seen at the site above. The azure was just lucky really. There were so many blue damselflys that there simply had to be an azure amongst them. I therefore took hundreds of pictures in case one turned out to be an azure. as it so happens, one did.

I went to springwatches legendary scrape but to be frank there was nothing there. I managed to spot 1 avocet and 2 brown smudges which I assumed were little ringed plovers but I was a little too far away to be sure. A little egret flew in and offered some entertainment by fishing.

as I walked round the reserve in search of my illusive new dragonfly I had a brief view of a jay but that was all in the way of birdlife. I did see a dragonfly in the air but like so many before it failed to land in a suitable position (top of very tall tree)

As I walked around the reserve on one of the less obvious paths I found another family of barnacle geese with two chicks. I wanted to get a photo of the adults hissing face-on with the camera, I know that it would be a cheat of a photo because these are not strictly wild birds.

However what actually happened was a real shock. The first bird was not in the mood for a photo and wandered away towards its mate. Its mate was much more obliging but as I was setting the camera The adult goose Ran at me, wings flailing and crashed into my leg. I was so shocked, that I left them too it, still without a shot. It just goes to show the amount of devotion put in to their chicks

I had carelessly left my phone in the car and so I knew nothing of when my parents had any intention of leaving and so I decided to take up a bench near the exit and wait for them. There was a family of barnacle geese heading towards me so I headed down towards the waters edge for safety's sake.

As I did this I spotted a dragonfly flying in an area clear of reedbed right in front of me. I looked at it and it appeared to be a chaser of unknown affinity. I tried to take a photo of it but it didn't land and it kept moving when I managed To get the camera in focus. Eventually it flew of without giving its identity away.

I waited a little longer on the bench overlooking the water and saw a great crested grebe and 2 dabchicks but the water was a little empty. I looked up for no apparent reason and then I saw the dragonfly again heading towards some low shrubs. I did a runner to try and keep up with it but It soon landed where I expected. I crept up and found it where I took these photos

Later analysis showed that it was infact a young male black-tailed skimmer which is a first for me and well worth the wait and chase. The shrubbery made the photos quite difficult but you can easily tell what it is.

Then my family found me and we went into the avairy where they keep the british waders. this is my favourite bird enclosure in the whole world. British birds in a walk in enclosure. What made it even more special were the male ruffs that were constantly displaying. I have never seen a ruff in full summer plumage like these but they were really beautiful. A couple of the below pictures are of a male displaying but I'm not sure they have come out well.

The birds are really special here and the skimmer only added to this great place. This is the last stop on our norfolk holiday and so of we set home!!