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 

Oats Royd

I dont go to this site as often as I should, considering how close we live to it, however for that reason it gave me the perfect site to go to as a mid revision break. I did not clearly know how to get to it, so went over the top road, which was badly overgrown. At the top before the descent into the actual reserve there were some shaded overgrown ponds in which there were a few frogs resting from the heat

-Common Frog

On the descent I flushed my first damselfly of the year, large red, and also got to watch a lovely willow warbler singing on top of a birch tree

-Willow warbler

The actual reserve was teeming with insect life and there were a few birds about too. On the ponds there two families of canada geese and a family ducks. There was also a moorhen and a pair of domestic geese. On the insect front there were quite a few damselflies, but they were difficult to track down to photograph

-Common blue damselfly

But there were also a large number butterflies, including orange tip and peacock, with an excess of large whites, small whites and green viened whites...

-Male orange tip

-Peacock

Garden Orange Tip

There have been a number of butterflys around over the course of the hot spell, one of which were the Orange tips, which were once again reluctant to stick around for a photo. Other butterflies included small tortoiseshell, large and small whites. Luckily for around 5 minuets, we did have an orange tip in the back garden one afternoon. It was a female, and chose awkward places to land, so the photos are not great, but its another record shot for my files. see the photos below.



Lakeland holiday day 1 part 2

leaving the woods we came out onto an open bit of grassland by the lake. There is an island opposite this bit of land with a reed bed to the left hand side as you look towards the water. And there I spotted our first mergansers of the holiday, about 20 meters out, so not much good really. After about 5 minuets trying to get closer to those ones my dad noticed that a trio had begun swimming towards the land from the island. This was a much better opportunity to get some photos and so i walked up to where these birds where.

The males were doing their comical display and then calling their unusual call, echoing all around. eventually they drifted away so We began to wander off, but I glanced back and noticed that the birds were double backing on themselves so I tracked back to try again. sadly though the sun had gone in for these shots so The reflection is awful but you can see that one of the males is about a third of the way through his display so its a decent effort given the conditions.

Leaving them to go and join my mum and brother at the Keswick boat renting place where we would get on a boat before lunch. I suggested that we go over to where the mergansers were, although that is where we go normally anyway, so my idea would probably not have not made much difference anyway. It was only about half way round the island that we encountered the birds I had hoped, in the form of a pair. The boat gives you a different perspective3 on the birds than from the land, and you could also get much closer to them.

we followed this pair around the island until we came to rather a lot of mergansers, all at pretty close quarters and doing their display again. These were a bit less shy than the pair that we had found originally and didn't swim away as much.

Then my brother, who was rowing, spotted a pair on the shore, not a view you often get with mergansers so it was a bit of a surprise to see this but never-the-less a wonderful photo oppertunity. Even on land the male was displaying which i would have thought a bit difficult becuase in the water they often dip themselves under the water with just the head sticking out, but he seemed to manage OK on the land!

This pair was then joined by another female who seemed to be in the way rather a bit becuase the female of the pair suddenly stood up, although it may have been our fault so we backed off a bit. I cant say much about merganser family life so I dont know if they are loyal to a partner or what but it seemed to create a tenser atmosphere in merganser terms!

Just as we were setting off to leave a pair of stunning males swam past us, seemingly uncaring and gave me another chance to get some great merganser photos, although I will say that none of them came out very clear.

Moving round to the farther islands we spotted a colony or flock of branacle geese, which i would have though being a bit late so i was doubtful was to weather they were actually wild animals, but i think it is likely given their numbers. They were on an island a bit further out, which was not privatly owned so i wondered about, if they were a colony, how they got on with people landing on the island who would think it funny to chase the geese. Indeed as we were there watching a group of kayakers landed on the shingle beach and wndered into the woods. It must have made a difference becuase on subsequent days they were on the privatly owned islands.

As you can see from the above, there were rather a lot of barnacle geese there and they were calling as well, their honking calls booming out from the trees. A bit further on, as we were crossing the lake a lone adult flew past us offereing me great photo oppertunitys, although i diddnt take them because my photo ability is naf!

The other side of the lake was much less busy, the main noise coming from the songbirds, chaffinches and robins, singing from the woods along the side. It was also very calm, hardly a ripple and very limited birdlife. However, just before we were going to set off back a lone male merganser appeared and swum past us so i got a few more photos just for good measure!

After that we took a trip into town which provided very little aside from tourism. Keswick is a very pretty little town and it is not dominated by big name brands, the largest supermarket being a "booths" which i have not seen anywhere else in Britain, although doubtless it is there.

When we arrived back at the caravan site I tried to find something to kill the time and so set up a photography stage with some blackthorn leaves and a bird feeder. As i was cutting the blackthorn an Orange tip butterfly flew past me. This is the last butterfly I need to complete my "Butterfly record collection" because when i got the idea last year, their flight season had ended. However I soon learnt that these were not the butterflys that landed on pretty flows, seldom they landed at all! the below photo is the only one out of about twenty orange tips that i saw all weeks that landed. And even this one landed beyond a barbed wire fence and brambles, so was impossible to get to.

Back to the stage and It was almost ready except that...the light was being blocked by the trees! what a nightmare. It did however do its job and birds landed on it almost immediately. The first birds were blue tits but they look virtually black! I decided to leave it and try again later, when the light would be better. It was convenient that there was a football match on at that time so I could photograph birds, sit in the caravan in comfort and listen to football all at the same time! eventually the sun dipped so that the light was behind the bird, but at least it was there. In the new conditions the first bird was a coal tit.

They were a reasonable effort I suppose but the blue tit that followed offered much more to the photo, and the sun had dipped even lower in the sky, so the light was even better.

They are a little rough but what can you expect, I'm not a pro. The football match, in case anyone was wondering was a 5-0 thumping for Bolton by stoke, who were the team I wanted to win the match anyway given that Bolton are a lancashire team, and stoke are not, so a good day all round really!

a sunny weekend at some village near sheffeild

went to go and see some of our family freinds who were staying at a country village near sheffeild. A nice village surrounded by farmland. on the saturday evening when we arrived we diddnt see anything really. But the morning after we went for a walk around the countryside, sadly I had left the camera at home, becuase I diddnt think I would need it. unfortunatly, there was lots of wildlife around, especially incredibly tame yellowhammers in stunning summer plumage. One of them was so bold I could get within one meter from them. There were loads of yellowhammers all around the hedges. after that I spotted a sparrowhawk whizz past and there was an orange tip butterfly, my first this year so it was a good walk, besides the camera issue.

last day of london holiday

went to some mysterious national trust place today with no camera
found plenty of long tailed tits plus a nest
a femle blackcap and nest and the male singging nearby (i did see him)
2 chiffchaff
a treecreeper really close
2 nuthatch
3 pied wagtails it didnt move for so long whilst i was walking up to it i thought it must be plastic. in the end it moved when i was about 30cm away
loads of red kites
2 feildfares
also 2 giant pittas in the small "avairy" there. this was great becuase it was the first time but also annoying becuase i had won the game of scrablle the night before with pitta on a double tripple word score but i only put it with 1 T.

bombilius major bee fly/bee mimic
comma 2
orange tit 1
small white 6
peackock 3
brinstone1
large white 2

scotland holiday-day 2

campsite:
wheatear
swallow
chaffinch
pied wagtail
house martin

castle kennedy gardens:
a nice botanical garden with 2 lochs at either side and a big pond in the middle. big forests are all over the place but not necceseraly of british trees

4 spot chaser by the pond.
birds were insignificant as there wernt that many
great creasted grebe
2 tufted ducks
2 pheasants.

none birds were
10 smooth newts
2 giant leechs
2 giant dragonfly lava-one of which was determined to kill and eat a stick
numerous damselflies of the blue and azure variety
1 orange tip butterfly

potpatrick:
a hourbour surrounded by walls except for a exit/entarance. away fromthe hourbour is a cliff top walk and a rocky beach



stonechat on the clifftop walk
20 ish fulmar nests
mother and baby rock pipit
oystercatcher
shag