Strumpshaw and Catfield

Today was spent around the Broads with Strumpshaw the first destination of the day. Walking down to the garden a Swallowtail was immediately seen feeding on the flowers in the borders and as usual gave excellent views.

Walking onto the reserve a number of Lizards were seen warming themselves up on the boardwalk giving the best views I think I have ever had of one.

A couple of Norfolk Hawkers were seen around the reserve but probably due to the blustery conditions they didn't hang around for long, unlike this Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Moving on to Catfield Fen a few Variable Damselflies were seen and then on the way back at least two Norfolk Hawkers were patrolling up and down the path and over a small pool battling with both Hairy Dragonflies and Four-spotted Chasers.

Completely down to luck I managed the flight shot below of one of the Norfolk Hawkers which is a pretty good effort for a point & shoot camera!

Around the reserve a good number of Swallowtails were encountered including this one in the car park.

Other photo opportunities were provided by this female Brimstone and an Emperor Moth caterpillar.

Lastly a quick check of the Downy Emerald site produced a brief male and an ovipositing female.

Manic Monday in Hartlepool

The peace and quiet of this morning was shattered shortly after 8.35 when the pager announced that Britains first ever twitchable White-throated Robin had just been trapped and even better it was on the mainland at Hartlepool Headland! It was currently being processed and would be released shortly, so after a couple of quick phone calls etc I was on the road heading north eagerly awaiting news as to whether it would be seen after release. News came through that it was indeed showing and messages confirming its continued presence came periodically over the next few hours as I battled my way through the daytime traffic.

Arriving at c1.40pm with the pager announcing it was currently being watched, I quickly walked the short distance to the crowd only to find out it had just flown off into the gardens. No worries it shows every 20 minutes I was assured, but 20 minutes turned into an hour and then into an hour and a half! In the meantime measures were tried to get people to stand back and allow it a pathway back into the bowling green where it had been feeding and far from coincidentally, shortly after they eventually moved it flew back in at c3.10pm. An anxious few seconds ensued then I noticed a few raised pairs of bins looking down the street so I quickly joined them and to my relief enjoyed about 5 seconds of it on the pavement before it disappeared through the fence and then shortly after flew back off from whence it came.

Obviously the pressure was now off but more prolonged views were worth waiting for, but unfortunately more people continued to stand in its flight line and ridiculously refused to move. Over two hours passed with no further sign and with a local checking the gardens it was frequenting with no luck, a few birders who had yet to connect disconsolately started to spread out to look for it in the adjacent area.

With a near 4m high wall around the garden it may be in, there was little prospect of seeing in to it but one intrepid Teesider drove his van onto the pavement and standing on the roof started to look over the wall into the garden. He quickly asked for confirmation of what it looked like as he had almost immediately picked up a bird feeding round a compost pile. Its appearance was quickly relayed back to him and he immediately declared he had it and after quickly climbing onto his van Franko confirmed that it was indeed the bird.

At this point all hell broke loose as people tried to get up on top of the van and scale the wall and lamp posts etc to get a glimpse. Amazingly after only a few minutes vans and ladders seemed to be arriving from all directions to enable everyone to get a look over the wall, and thankfully it contined to perform well in the garden and with everybody keeping calm all present got to see the bird even if it was only for a minute or so whilst atop a ladder or hanging off the top of the wall.

Having already seen it I stood back to let those who needed it get in first but with it performing so admirally and everyone having now seen it, I was able to have another look courtesy of one of the dozen ladders, as it sat motionless in a flower bed before moving off further into the garden.

All in all an excellent twitch in the end with everyone going home very happy and it was so refreshing to see the amazing generosity of the locals to whom so much is owed with them doing everything they could to help us see the bird, so a big thank-you to them. 

Mid-evening viewing over the garden wall after the initial rush had subsided

Red Deer out to sea!!!

With the patch continuing to be fairly quiet I took a trip along the coast today recording a few new species for the year that I haven't had round the patch. Star bird was a male Montagu's Harrier watched hunting for about ten minutes, with other notable sightings including 3 Turtle Doves, Grey Partridge and Little Stint.

However the surprise of the day came whilst at Cley as when walking along the shingle bank near Arnolds I noticed a GBB Gull sitting on a large brown blob in the sea. I couldn't quite make out what it was but part of me thought it looked like a large (obviously dead) animal of some sort. I watched it as the tide drifted it nearer and nearer to the shore when its head became apparent and it appeared to be a deer! Eventually it was caught up in the breakers and dumped onto the beach just west of the end of the East Bank when it could be confirmed that it was indeed a deer, being later confirmed as a Red Deer, but where it had originated from was anyones guess, maybe it had drifted all the way over from the continent?

First Razorbill of the year

With fairly brisk onshore winds today I gave the sea a quick look and was rewarded with the first Razorbill of the year. Good numbers of Gannets and Guillemots were also seen passing along with a few Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Common & Sandwich Terns.

Downy Emeralds

With it being a nice warm sunny day I decided to take a trip over to Norfolks Downy Emerald site in the north-east of the county. Quickly after arrival I picked out one over the pond and watched it constantly battling with the Four-spotted Chasers that were also present, along with my first Emperor of the year.

After a couple of hours of trying to photo it/them without much success, I saw one go up into the trees on the far side of the bay and quickly scanning with bins picked it up resting on a branch. Being too far off for the camera alone I had a go at digiscoping it and managed some fairly decent pics given the distance, with three produced below.

As I had my scope with me I tried my luck at trying to digiscope one in flight too, and even though that seemed like an impossible task I managed the one below probably more down to luck than skill, but nevertheless I was pleased with it.

As the nice weather continued into the evening I decided to make the most of it and went up to the Cromer - Sheringham ridge where I was treated to an excellent display by a Nightjar both overhead in flight and churring from atop a fence post.

Second half of the month

Birdwise the last couple of weeks have been very slow going round the patch with the only new bird for the year noted being a Garden Warbler on Beeston Common. Other notable sightings include the Sedge Warbler at East Runton continuing to hold territory in a dry area of bramble scrub for over two weeks and a couple of singing Reed Warblers also present in the adjacent area.

A few Red Kites have been noted passing over including a group of 3, a Dunlin was on the muddy edge of the reedbed at Sidestrand so hopefully a sign of things to come this autumn if the water level stays low, and the month ended with the very pleasing sight of a Mandarin and her 8 ducklings on Felbrigg Lake.

With their early emergence this year the Butterflies and Dragonflies around the patch are keeping the interest levels up and a few of my recent photos are included in the posts below.

Some recent Dragonfly Pictures

Having just switched over from the old editor in blogger which seems to have died, I'm still trying to get the hang of the new 'improved' version especially with trying to get the right size of photos so the image quality viewable on the screen isn't compromised which at present it is. I'll be experimenting a bit, changing the design and screen size etc, but until I get it right clicking on the largest photos below will expand them to their full size and improve the quality of the image too in the process. (Remember to use the back button on your browser to 'close' the image)

 

Broad-bodied Chasers at Felbrigg including one freshly emerged from its exuvia:

Freshly emerged Black-tailed Skimmer at Felbrigg:

Another recent emergee, this time a Keeled Skimmer on Holt Lowes:

And yet another, a Four-spotted Chaser at Beeston Common including a shot of its exuvia:

A few Damselflies - First a couple of Blue-tailed showing the different colour forms:

Large Reds

and finally a close-up of a female Red-eyed Damselfly in tandem with a male:

Recent Butterfly etc Pics

Some recent pics of Butterflies and other insects taken in Felbrigg Park.

Brown Argus

Green-veined Whites

Orange Tip

Small Copper

Cinnabar Moth

Hornet

Out Clubbing

To add to my Dragonfly list, I took a trip down to Goring to see the Common Clubtails which can be seen emerging on the concrete footings of the railway bridge over the Thames there, and I certainly wasn't disappointed with 5 seen emerging, including a couple that I witnessed the nymphs climbing up out of the water and then was treated to watch the whole emergence process taking place over the ensuing couple of hours, with a selection of pics showing the emergence below.

I had hoped to see a mature one there but failed to locate one, but a check of the river further downstream at Pangbourne produced the goods with this one found in the bankside vegetation and which subsequently happily crawled on to my fingers. Note that the eyes on Clubtails are separate unlike the eyes of the other dragonflies occurring in the UK. By clicking on the two images below you'll get a larger sized version with better image quality.

Next port of call was a nearby site which holds very small numbers of Marsh Fritillaries, which after a lot of searching finally gave themselves up with c4 seen.

An added bonus came in the shape of good numbers of Small Blues, which unlike the ones seen a few weeks ago happily proved to be more photogenic.

My first Large Skippers of the year were also noted, along with a few Brown Argus, Dingy Skippers, Small Heaths and this Peacock.