Monthly Archives: August 2010

All the Fun of the Fair

Posted on August 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Week 33 has been one of the best weeks of the year, at work this week the Butterflies etc continued with Common Carpet Moth again and a first in the form of a Silver Y Moth

Silver Y Moth

The usual butterflies continued with Small Copper, Large White, Small White, Green Viened White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, and a few Ringlets. News then broke on Tuesday of a Ruff at Ingbirchworth Reservoir this turned out to be a one day bird hence I missed it. This would have been a very good patch bird with only two being seen since 1996 (2000 and 2003). I did manage to get to Ingbirchworth on the Thursday night adding not 1 not 2 but 3 patch birds to my list these were Greenshank (3), Ringed Plover (2) and Redshank (1) more than made up for the Ruff, in attendance also were Common Sandpiper (1) and Green Sandpiper (2).

Couple of birds I have also managed to catch up with this week in the garden have been Dunnock and Blue Tit

Dunnock

Blue Tit

Then it was off to the Fair at Rutland, we stayed at our usual venue Bridge Cottage (see B & B’s etc Tab) making our first bird stop at the RSPB Top Lodge Fineshade Woods. Not many bird species about at Fineshade this year we did see however Buzzard, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow and Goldcrest did manage to ID a few species of Dragonfly at the pond Emperor, Brown Hawker and Common Darter, Butterflies included Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Gatekeeper, Small White, Green Viened White, Common Blue and a Large Fritillary probable Silver Washed. We made our way to the cottage seeing plenty of Red Kites on our way to end the first day.

Saturday the 21st was Birdfair day catching up with new things and friends, did buy myself a new book thou called Watching British Dragonflies great book gets good reviews the plates are drawn and not photos of the Dragonflies and it also gives usefull information on loads of sites within the UK to locate various species. My wife got the new pair of binos this year a pair of Opticron 8 x 32 , I found these on the small side for an 8 x 32 binocular but fantastically light good image nice and bright and as soon as thay came out of the box the first bird was an Osprey making its way across the fair. More Red Kites on the way back to the cottage with Kingfisher at the cottage river as we relaxed on the decking perfect ending

Red Kite

Kingfisher

Sunday was taken up visiting a new site Eyebrook Reservoir here we caught up with a few waders and wildfowl Greenshank, Ringed Plover, Ruff, Redshank, Common Sandpiper,Mute Swan, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot, Teal, a few Sand Martin, Swallows and House Martins, Greylag Geese along with Canada Geese and Grey Heron and Little Egret .

I was more than hoping for a Osprey at this site as well but no joy so we decided on a trip to the Lyndon part of Rutland Water were we bagged 2 Osprey (1 male and 1 immature bird), that was it for another year see Trip Reports Tab for a full species list

Week 32

Posted on August 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

The week started quiet slowly mainly due to the overcast weather, with only a few species of butterfly on the wing, with Whites being the more numerous. These included Green Veined White, Large White, and Small White around the fields at work. Along with the whites Small Copper, and Meadow Brown could still be seen. On the 11th, Wednesday, I had a surprise in the form of a male Sparrowhawk take out a young Swallow which had been gathering along with his mates on the telephone wires. I had a first at work this week in the form of a Common Darter which was also going to be the theme for the end of the week as we had a day at Fairburn Ings on the Saturday. There wasn’t many birds about at Fairburn, did add Greenshank to the year list thou with 1 at Lin Dike and 1 at the centre (only to find out later that day that there was 2 at Ingbirchworth Res, My Patch, well can’t get them all). Along with the Shanks Green Sandpiper were about the highlight with birds at the feeders Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit and Willow Tit, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Tree Sparrow, Blackbird, Chaffinch and Pheasant (You can click the pictures to make them larger)

: Willow Tit

: Emerald Damselfly

: Coal Tit

: Emerald Damselfly

: Time out for Sunbathing

: Common Darter

: Goldfinch and Greenfinch

: Ruddy Darter

Around the pond walking areas we enjoyed ourselves in the splendor of Butterflies, Dragonflies and Damselflies my first Brimstone of the year along with Green Viened White, Large White, Small White and Speckled Wood. Common Blue and Emerald Damselflies and a splendid male Ruddy Darter, see photo, then were we started the week we ended up with Common Darter.

Week 31

Posted on August 6, 2010 | 1 comment

Well it’s been a full week especially at work with 12 species of Butterfly on Tuesday3rd these were Large White, Small White, Green Veined White, Peacock, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Small Skipper, Small Copper, Gatekeeper, Comma, Speckled Wood and Tortoiseshell, species of Moth I haven’t seen before Common Carpet Moth, a Brown Hawker and then the birds a few Willow Warblers still kicking about Swallows hawking the fields, a couple of Grey Wagtails at the pond. The week finished at Scout dike on the Friday the 6th with a few nice surprises like Green Sandpipers (2), Yellow Wagtail (2) at the inlet end of the reservoir and then a Whinchat along the North Bank wall, with these species were Common Snipe (2), Common Sandpiper (2), Little Ringed Plover (1), Pied Wagtail (2), Lapwing, Grey Heron, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe a great ending to a good week

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