Monthly Archives: May 2011

Garden Stuff

Posted on May 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

Well after a week of nights I have missed alot this week if you can call a 12 hour shift form 4:30pm to 5:00am nights’ I call it where’s my life gone shift, I finally woke from my slumber over the weekend to catch up with young birds in my garden and a couple of firsts. Firstly a family party of Greenfinch [2 Adults 2 Young] visited over the weekend and I finally caught up with these colurful birds, my wife had seen them over the last few weeks, this time I had my camera to hand

Male Greenfinch

Another first this weekend was in the form of a butterfly which caught my eye from the room window so out I ran with again camera in hand to catch my first Speckled Wood

Speckled-Wood

The rest of the weekend was catch up time with what was happening in the garden with young House Sparrows and young Starling begging for food from there parents even when the food was at there feet, the Blue Tit was kept busy to and fro from the nest box we can know hear the young in the box won’t be long now before we are watching young Blue Tits in the garden, know where did I put that camera or is it time for bed again [click the pics to enlarge]

Blue Tit

Young Starling food begging

Old Moor RSPB

Posted on May 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

I thought I would start with the Avocet from today’s visit to Old Moor, these have breed at Old Moor for the first time this year we say two chicks today, I believe the first was hatched on the 20th, lets hope they make it to full size apprantely the Black Headed Gull chicks are having a hard time from the Lesser Black Backs that are about

Avocet

On leaving the visitor centre we firstly paid a visit to the feeders like you do here there were the usual bird species about that now seem to have settled done into breeding the ones we saw were Bullfinch, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Willow Tit, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Robin. We finally left the feeders behind to find a good assortment of Damselflies nearby, we spent quite a while here taking a good number of photos the species we saw Azure, Common, and Blue Tailed

Azure Damselfly

Note the ‘U’ shape on the above Damselfly on segment two, one down from the body, this is on the Male Azure you’ll have to look on my Flickr site to see whats on the Females. Moving on we finally caught up with a few more bird species from the family hide namely the above Avocet Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Gadwall, Little Grebe, Redshank to name a few highlights but no Med Gull for us today.

After dinner it was the turnof Butterflies namely Common Blue they did seem to be the ‘Common’ butterfly of the day but we did see Large White and Orange Tip

Common Blue Butterfly

Female Bullfinch

Todays Species List :-

Spurn Point

Posted on May 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

Things have been quiet this week but the finding of a Lime Hawk Moth lifted the spirits on one of my early morning walks to work.

Lime Hawk Moth

Saturday saw me grasping the bull by the horns and heading off to Spurn Point in the hope of a few migrants I arrived early doors at about 7:30am to an empty car park the one near the Bluebell cafe. I could see there were a few birds about on the nearby pool these included Swallows, Sand Martin, Redshank, Blackbirds [I tried turning these into Ring Ouzels but that didn’t work], Dunnocks, Robin and a Common Whitethroat. I proceeded to walk down the seaward side path towards the warren hoping to pick some stuff up on the sea, there was little about 1 Ringed Plover and 2 Turnstone flew past Herrings Gulls and Black Headed Gulls made their way south then I picked up 2 Terns, black edge to wingtips, pale under wings with no trailing edge a couple of Roseate Terns, nice start. Passing the pool area I flushed up a lone Wheatear, Whimbrel and Common Sandpiper. I was soon at the warren part of Spurn seeing Swallows going thru and on the Humber shoreline Grey Plover, Bar Tailed Godwits, Dunlins, Turnstone, Whimbrels, and Oystercatchers. I was hoping to see the Subalpine Warbler whilst I was at the warren, I had a bit of a wait but out it did come even if it was only briefly, reminded me of 1998 when I last saw one here it was a longer wait then. Off I went seeing Goldfinch, Meadow Pipits, Blue Tit and Great Tits as I went making my way towards the triangle footpath long this footpath I found Common Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers, Lesser Whitethroat, and a new Spurn bird for me Grasshopper Warbler and Reed Buntings. Nearing the end of the footpath I found some caterpillars of the Brown Tailed Moth, nasty caterpillars if you touch them they can give you severe skin problems or in the extreme breathing problems they are poisonous, don’t touch here’s a pic

Caterpillar of the Brown Tailed Moth

Having walked down towards Easington and doing Sammys Point I didn’t see very much else at Spurn so I stopped of at Fairburn Ings on the way back home to se the Common Crane that was present along with this fellow I heard Cuckoo and saw Redshank, Teal, Gadwall, Common Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Mute Swan and Stock Dove

Swallow

Not a bad day at Spurn I managed to add four new species to my Spurn reserve list Roseate Tern, Sand Martin, Common Sandpiper and Grasshopper Warbler > My Spurn Reserve List now standing at 139.

So the The Day List in no particular order :- Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Brent Goose, Shelduck, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Red legged partridge, Pheasant, Moorhen, Coot, Crane, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Dunlin, Bar Tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Curlew, Redshank, Common Sandpiper, Turnstone, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull, Roseate Tern, Common Tern, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Collard Dove, Cuckoo, Swift, Skylark, Sand Martin, Swallow, House Martin, Meadow Pipit, PiedWagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Wheatear, Blackbird, Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Reed Bunting

Old Moor RSPB

Posted on May 2, 2011 | 1 comment

Here we are again back down at Old Moor which is becoming more like home at the moment the first birds seen today were the Common Swifts overhead and plenty of them to great to see these back and then Whitethroat from the car park hedges. We made our way inside and to the feeders which at the moment held very little bird life except the odd Bullfinch, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Pheasant and Tree Sparrow so it was into the reserve and the family hide being our next port of call hearing/seeing on the way Willow Warbler, Coot, Mallard and Linnets overhead. Settling into the hide the Mediterranean Gulls were soon located amongst the Black Headed Gull colony fighting its corner again with the intrusion of the Black Heads. Scanning about we picked up Redshank, Lapwing, Sand Martin, Swallow, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Gadwall, and Canada Goose. It wasn’t long before we were off again and making our way down to the Wader Scrape hide along Green Lane hearing Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler singing from dense cover keeping out of the full force of this high wind today, from the hide we picked up a couple of waders notably Grey Plover in full summer dress and with Avocet along side, here was also saw a couple of Common Terns. Other wildlife today including Gypsy Marsh was Dinky Skipper, Orange Tip, Green Veined White, Large Red Damselfly, Azure Damselfly

Wildlife List for Today :-

Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Tree Sparrow, Magpie, Jackdaw, Crow, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Shelduck, Redshank, Avocet, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Common Tern, Black Headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Canada Goose, Sand Martin, Common Swift, Swallow, Pheasant, Coot, Moorhen, Starling, Large Red Damselfly, Common Damselfly, Green Veined White, Orange Tip, Dinky Skipper