Orgreave Lakes

I decided that after my lecture today I would go to Orgreave Lakes to see what all the fuss was about. Orgreave, for anyone who does not know won the inland patchwork challenge last year and has been described as one of the best new nature reserves, though it is in fact a development site, so I dunno how long its going to remain  like this.

Its convenient to get to, only one 40 min bus journey and then your there, hence why I had enough time after lectures. The weather was fluctuating but for the whole time I was there it held out and was a rather nice day. As soon as I arrived I spotted my first year-tick of the day-Skylark, singing up very high, hence it took a few moments to locate but I managed it.

I followed the path round the two lakes and found more and more skylarks and meadow pipits too, all in good numbers. The real birds I wanted to see were ringed plover and so I was checking all the shorelines. There were Cormorants, mallards, gulls, coots, moorhens, Canada geese and mute swans, as well as Gadwall. I made my way round to the second lake following a small group of Mipits and managed to track down some skylarks that were less flighty

-Skylark

The second lake was bigger but still had a good variety of wildfowl on offer, including tufted duck and goosander. There was quite a big goosander flock and they drifted in quite close so I was able to get a record shot.

-Goosander

I followed the path but it lingered nearer the river now rather than the ponds, there was less here, but still stuff to be had. The highlight was a pair of teal, as well as gadwall and mallards.

I reached the point at which the lakes stopped but the site carried on, and as I had never been before I decided to carry on going up the river. I did not get very far, but on that bit of the walk I spotted lapwings on the far fields and there were a lot off bumble-bees next to the path. But the highlight of this part of the walk as that 3 hirundines flew over me. They were not swallows and seemed quite dark so I reckon house martin, though only sand martins were recorded from the site today. Either way its my first Hirundines of the year so that was very exciting.

I then turned back and continued walking around the lakes. I continued to scout the shores and eventually got lucky when I spotted a small brown bird feeding on the water edge. I got closer and was please to find that it was a ringed plover, no less than the bird I had wanted. However, there was a twist in the tail because as I approached I began to realise that this was not actually a ringed plover but a little ringed plover, a species I am very unfamiliar with. I only realised what it was a few mins before it took off. They had not been recorded at the site yet this year, so I wondered if I was the one that had found the first, but when I got home I found that somebody had been earlier and found them first. I say them because they spotted 2, whereas I only found the one.

-Little Ringed Plover

I continued on the way round and added to my list oystercatcher, wigeon and actual ringed plover. I found a pair of ringed plovers on the far side of the first lake, so that was nice, actually finding the birds I had wanted to see. This time there was no doubt, the orange on the bill was unmistakable through the bins. They were quite flighty and there was a dog running around so I was unable to get particularly close. But either way I managed a record shot.

-Ringed Plover

I decided to wander back so that I was not late for football, and I had seen the site and wandered round. I was well impressed, even as I was leaving I spotted another teal on the river which was quite close, or at least close enough for me to get a record shot.

-Common Teal

I was almost out when I decided to check out a marshy area for jack snipe. I found none but did flush a female reed  bunting which was nice, another species for the day. But that was not the highlight, as I also found my first identifiable butterfly of the year; small tortoiseshell. I realise now though that I had the wrong lens on as I had been photographing birds, and so was unable to get a great shot of it, either way I still managed a shot to record this, my second butterfly of the year.

-Small Tortoiseshell

And that was that. I was pretty impressed with the site and will defiantly be coming back multiple times due to the ease of getting there. And I had recorded 4 year ticks for the day, bringing me to the bumper score of 88!

Uni Week 2

So week 2 in my new home comes and goes. This week was built mainly on fieldwork and so we were out in the field quite a lot.

Tuesday
Went to Whiteley Wood to collect leaves. On the bird front there was a heron, one buzzard soaring overhead and a pair of robins having a real scrap

Wednesday
We went to the cemetery to collect leaves but there was not much there due to the poor weather. On the way back we went through the botanic gardens and there were ample, maybe 10 magpies all on the lawns, as well as wood pigeons and collard doves.

Saturday
I went on a walk with the Sheffield university bird-watching society through Endcliffe park to Forge Dam. We recorded a few interesting species, grey wagtail, sparrowhawk, buzzard, mistle thrush, long tailed tit, tree-creeper and nuthatch, and it was a nice walk

Sunday
Went for a walk with a church up on the borders of the peak district through some woods and round a reservoir. Butterflies were in abundance, with multiple Small Tortoiseshells and Speckled Woods. There was also a Common Sandpiper on the bank of the reser which was really nice to see. Besides that there was a sparrowhawk.

Soil Hell-Back Again

The weather was nice, today I once more made the ascent up the hill, to see if I could actually track down any birds. I managed a few, which is an improvement on Tuesday. Before I even reached the hill I spotted this lovely female wheatear on the wall along the side of the road. It was not a particularly flighty bird, as wheatears often are so I managed a few reasonable photos to record the fact that there were actually birds there today.

-Wheatear

But it was not the only bird, oh no! On the hill there were many meadow pipits and skylarks, a magpie, trios of woodpigeons and pheasants, which jumped out of the long grass at three different intervals and gave me 3 metaphorical heart attacks. There was a large flock of around 20-30 starlings on the mast and as I was leaving were washing themselves in the pool nearest to the mast.

Butterflies were a little down on Tuesday, there remained peacocks, whites and small tortoiseshells but only one small copper and the most abundant butterfly were meadow browns, most of which looked like they had seen better days; tattered wings and faded colouring.

-Small Tortoiseshell

Where the hill exceeded itself was in the dragonfly department, once more, with a record of 3 species! The most common of these was Common Hawker, of which there were at least four, possibly even 5, some having fights but each seemed to have its own pool, whereas on tuesday they had both been on the largest pool.

The top dog as it were on the main pool was quite keen on hovering for a few seconds at each spot, so I made the attempt to try and photograph it in flight. I have a couple of resonable efforts, but whenever it clouded over all dragonflies vanished, so I was eager to have a look round before the cloud became more frequent, for that reason, and the fact that the dragonfly moved and photographing flying dragonflies is hard, these were the only photos I managed that were any good.

-Common Hawker

As I said, I moved on from the main pool to the other pools, where today there were dragonflies. The two male black darters from tuesday had moved to another pool, or possibly a different pair, and here there was no common hawker so they were easier to approach. I got some decent photos of them, a soil hill record shot.

-Black Darter

I made my way round the other pools and found only common hawkers on others beside the 2 main pools. Therefore I returned here when the sun came back out and spotted 2 male Common Darters, which is a new record for me at this site. Having said that, until tuesday I had never seen a dragonfly here, so its not saying much. These darters were not keen to land, as darters often are, so I only got a record shot of it one flight.

-Common Darter

I made my way back to the black darter pond but the sun had gone in and they were not there. There was however, my first female dragonfly of the site, a female common hawker which was ovipositing in the pond, indicating that there is obviously a population here, and this is not some freak event of individuals been blown in.

-Female Common Hawker

So another exciting installment of events on the hill, which has once more excelled itself.

Soil Hill

It was a pleasant enough afternoon so I decided to wander up to soil hill to see what was going on. The warm air temperature had brought out the butterflies in force. On the way up I found Small Copper, and various whites. Once at the top I also found Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Meadow Brown bringing me up to a reasonable butterfly total for the walk.

-Small Copper

-Small Tortoiseshell

-Green Veined White

It was at the main pond on the track that I got my biggest shock of the day. As I approached I noticed two large black insects hovering next to the side and immediately recognised them as black darters, which I was not expecting. They were then joined by a large but very fresh male Common Hawker which was hunting the ponds edge. I had not expected any dragonflies up here, and these were the first I have ever seen, so to find 2 species was something of a pleasant surprise.

-Male Common Hawker

-Male Black Darter (1 of 2)

As for birds, the main group of wildlife I had expected to see, they were sadly very lacking, reduced to flushed skylarks and meadow pipits that refused to stick around. I only managed to find one Meadow Pipit which did not fly away.

-Meadow Pipit

On the way down though I spotted a very large group of starlings that moved around landing on the pylons that were up there.

-Starlings

On the whole it was a very good trip, and found some lovely wildlife, even if it was lacking a little on the bird front.

Butterfly

Saw my first butterfly of the year today, which was no surprise because it was so warm. It was a small tortoiseshell from the breif view I got as it fluttered past me.

November Butterfly

Yes, Unlikely as it seems, on the Sunday the 6th of November 2011 my dad told me that there was a butterfly on the window flowers. I went for a look, and found a rather faded small tortoiseshell butterfly sunning itself, probably to get warm. I went up stairs to get the camera, and then went outside to get a better look. It has been a year for late butterflies, but November is quite late. It was a warm day, so maybe it was awoken from hibernation by the sun.

-Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

Lancashire

headed into Lancashire today, for a football match. On the way spotted a buzzard, kestrel and a flock of 100ish lapwings. At the ground, spotted another ridiculously late butterfly-small tortoiseshell, and a black headed gull nearly got hit by the ball. Mainly posted this due to the late presence on the butterfly, although because it was small tortoiseshell, it was probably just woken up from hibernation because of the 15degree temperatures today.

October Butterflies

Walking home spotted a small tortoiseshell in Bradshaw park. I was surprised because the weather hadn't been warm until then, and even then it wasn't too warm, although the sun was out. The sun may have cause it to come out of hibernation.
Or that's what I would have though if around the corner I hadn't spotted a red admiral, which I did. To be fair, the red admiral did look a bit dopey and I could easily get close to it. I don't think it will manage its migration if its leaving it this late.

October

had my first ever Calderdale october swallows this morning, 2 sat on wires near the Bradshaw tavern. Also a chiffchaff singing and a jay at north dean woods, as well as some stunning fly agaric. Also saw a speckled wood and small tortoiseshell. What kind of october is this?

...and butterflies too

we're two days off october and we still have butterflies. Fair enough having small tortoiseshells as these hibernate and the current warm spell could wake them into a breif flight, but red admirals have been around the school and garden, which I reckon should have already begun their migration. a pleasure to see, if not a bit odd!

some more garden gems!

the garden-brimming with butterflys (notice the alliteration!)

its been pretty busy since I got back from Scotland and as a result I have not really been able to get out. luckily the wildlife came to me this time allowing me to fill up my butterfly photo collection. Allow me to explain; whilst on holiday I decided to keep a "type photos" file with my record shots of every species I had seen so that, would I ever need a photo, I could easily track it down. Butterfly's file was one of the more complete but luckily it is now even more full. We had comma round the front and a small copper round the back in the same day which is pretty impressive. here is a collection of photos I have taken!

the comma

a small tortoiseshell absorbing nutrients from the soil on my mums vegetable plot!

The gorgeous little small copper, up close!

At the same time there was this meadow brown feeding on the same plants. occasionally the small copper would chase the meadow brown which was a surprise to me.

By this point the small copper had moved plants, hence the new red background

A comma photo with wings closed, showing the "comma"

A few green veined white record shots!

the comma

the meadow brown

The small copper, my favourite picture from the series

this all happened a few days ago but I have only just got to the computer. Hopefully the rest of the holiday will be just as successful