WADERS ON THE DAM

After yesteday's visit to Frampton Marsh we looked at the local birding blogs and decided that Grafham water might be worth a visit, more local and with a chance of some closer encounters with waders along the dam wall.

Again, we enjoyed sunny weather, although initially breezy as we crossed the dam. Wagtails were in abundance, mostly pied, but a couple of grey wagtails amongst them feeding on the shore. 

Despite the recent reports, no other waders appeared until we were crossing back to the car park. Scanning the water's edge, we suddenly noticed a movement further along. Using  binoculars we recognised the long yellowish legs of a couple of greenshanks;  we stayed put and waited as they made their way towards us giving quite the best views I have ever had in fact, before they suddenly took off and made towards the car park.

These weren't the only waders now on the dam, a turnstone and a dunlin also made an appearance.  An afternoon visiting the nature reserve and hides, gave us sightings of a some common sandpipers as well as numerous coots and blackheaded gulls etc. and a heron and several little egrets before we ended our visit with ice creams as we sat relaxing on the grass overlooking the water. 

dunlin

greenshank

greenshank

greenshank

turnstone

MORNING AT RSPB FRAMPTON MARSH

This was my   third or fourth visit to this lovely RSPB reeseve in Lincolnshire. The day dawned sunny and after a fairly early start we arrived at the reserve at 9.am. We had a quick coffee in the carpark and reached the visitor centre just as it opened.

A quick glance at the sightings board indicated where the main interest lay.. a long billed dowitcher and buff breasted sandpiper being the star species. We took a different path to usual, aiming for the sea wall. The path was bordered by large numbers of yellow sunflowers, planted so that the flowers weren't all in flower at once. 

We looked over the grasses at the scrapes where we soon found a little egret, ruff, golden plover, snipe, seven curlew sandpipers, four yellow wagtails, several ringed plover and dunlins. A good start for the day!

Unlike on previous visits, the wind was light and we were able to enjoy the view from on top of the sea wall. Black tailed godwits were presenton the scrapes below us as were several avocets. We continued on the path, encountering a herd of young cattle which stood and stared as we approached them but allowing us to pass without incident. 

Two birds caught our eye, red legged and beaked, but not the usual redshank. Spotted redshanks we decided and the sightings board back at the visitor centre confirmed this.

Back on the main part of the reserve, we visited two of the hides, adding a party of nine spoonbills to our species list. Numerous small white butterflies were on the wing, also a couple of red admirals, a painted lady and two tortoiseshells. Large flocks of goldfinches were enjoying feeding from teazels.

Sadly both rare bird species were not seen during our visit, but we were able to add a few more ticks to our lists nevertheless. 

spoonbills

little egret

golden plover

cattle 

snipe

goldfinch

ruff

sunflowers

little egrets

A LITTLE CORNISH BIRDING

Whilst my reason for visiting Cornwall recently was for a holiday, rather than birding, I did managed to get a few more year ticks without too much effort on my part!

Our first day was wild and windy, with sunshine and showers. We parked down at chapel porth  beach car park, and whilst admiring the view, I soon spotted some small brown birds running about the car park. They had to be rock pipits, and I took a few  shots from the car window. Then with the sun showing through the clouds I ventured onto the rocky beach and found a sheltered spot. I noticed a rock pipit was darting amongst the rocks nearby and then approached me, staying within a few feet as it hunted for food amongst the stones. I cautiously got out my camera and snapped away till it was disturbed by other visitors. 

rock pipit

The next day was sunnier but with strong winds. To enjoy the effect on the waves, I drove the coastal route via Porthtowan and Portreath then down to Godrevey point. Despite the strength of the wind, plenty of people were out and about admiring the views. I decided to join them and took my camera bag with me and walked around the headland. There was a steady stream of birds passing by just off shore, their bright white colour with black wing tips, made me take out my binoculars to confirm that they were in fact gannets. 

Godrevy lighthouse, birds were passing between the island and the shore

very cropped photo of a gannet

By Monday it had calmed down a little, and I took a pleasant hour's walk around Carnsew Pool, part of the RSPB Hayle estuary reserve which is accessed conveniently from the ASDA carpark, where my parents were shopping.. Although the tide wasn't yet in, there were still plenty of birds to be seen, notably little egrets, oyster catchers, good numbers of ringed plovers, dunlin, black headed gulls, curlew, herring gulls, black tailed godwits, and searching amongst the seaweed and rocks, a turnstone. 

little egret

little egrets

turnstone

little egret

oyster catcher

KINGFISHER ACTIVITY

Having packed this morning in readiness for  an early start for Cornwall tomorrow, I decided I'd have time to fit in a quick trip to Farmoor Reservoir. My reasons for wanting to go were twofold; firstly there had been reports from a local   birder of kingfisher activity in front of  the Shrike meadow hide; secondly, I hoped to get a couple more sightings for my year list. 

With warm sunny weather and little breeze, it was a pleasant walk across the causeway. I checked out the gulls and found  a yellow legged gull on one of the rafts, alongside some cormorants, then further along, a small group of waders contained a couple of ringed plovers, a sanderling and a dunlin. 

Having attempted a few photos, I then progressed to the Shrike meadow hide, where, as expected several other birders were poised with lenses at the ready, waiting for the arrival of one of two juvenile kingfishers. I heard that there had been already two visits to the perching post this morning, so settled down to wait. Just in front of me a couple of red admiral butterflies were nectaring, and a reed warbler had a nest just visible in the reeds in  front  of the hide, which it kept returning to. I don't know if it had young in there, I couldn't hear any cheeping. 

After an hour's wait, everyone in the hide suddenly pointed their lenses towards the perching post; a kingfisher had arrived and was posing nicely for photos. Suddenly it flew off onto a nearby branch where it again waited, before diving into the water and returning to its original perch. It then flew off, only to return a few minutes later. There was the constant noise of cameras clicking for a short time, before it left again. 

I decided not to wait any longer, but made my way slowly back along the causeway to the car. An enjoyable couple of hours. 

kingfisher

reed warbler nest just visible through the reeds

yellow legged gulls on raft

waders - sanderling, dunlin and ringed plovers

sanderling

ringed plover

AUGUST BUTTERFLIES

I am nearing the end of my butterfly count for this year,  but there are a couple of butterflies I target for the school holidays as they fly during August, so today I paid my annual visit to the NNR at Aston Rowant to look for the silver spotted skipper. Although it was fairly sunny, I was surprised to find only one other car in the car park, which left as I was reading the new parking meter. I took the top chalky path, rather than the lower one which passes through some woodland, and realised why I might be the only person there... there was a steady breeze which would not favour butterflies. However, within five minutes I had found my first silver spotted skipper.  Then another.  I continued walking, seeing a couple of painted ladies, and one or two chalkhill blues, as well as gatekeepers and meadow browns. Towards the end of the reserve, I headed downhill where it was a lot calmer, and here there were a lot more chalkhill blues, but no more skipper. This must be one of the noisiest reserves, as the busy M40 runs alongside the bottom of the hill! 

path leading along the top of the reserve

motorway passing at the bottom of the reserve

chalkhill blue

silver spotted skipper

On returning to the car,  I realised I had time to drive over to nearby RSPB Otmoor and have a look for my second target butterfly, the brown hairstreak.  A new parking fee had been introduced here too, but thankfully I had my RSPB membership ticket to put in the window. 

From the car park its only a few metres to the old Roman Road which is the place to look for brown hairstreaks. For the past two years I have had to make do with glimpses of these butterflies high up in the elms, but today,  within a few minutes I had found one close at hand on some brambles.  I was told by another visitor that he had seen four altogether, but only males.  During my visit I saw three different individuals, all males, but two of them were slightly damaged. I then found another, on brambles in the car park. 

Back home, I found three common blues in my 'wild' grassy area at the rear of my garden, which were first I've seen there this year. 

AISH TOR

It  was only a slight possibility that I might find a High Brown Fritillary at Aish Tor, seeing as their flight period is virtually its end, but as I was in Devon, I thought it was worth a try. It would have been good to be able to write that I did manage to find one, but sadly there were no fritillaries flying at all, not even dark green or an early second brood small pearl bordered fritillary. Admittedly I wasn't exactly sure that I was searching in the right spot, I had located a car park that had been used as a starting point for a previous field meeting, but no one else was around so I couldn't even ask! 

Nevertheless, the views were beautiful, a few Dartmoor ponies were around, and plenty of other butterflies, namely gatekeepers, small heath, whites,  a painted lady, red admiral and surprisingly to me good numbers of graylings ( new sighting for the year)  near the summit where the bracken was replaced by heather for the most part. 

It was a hot day, and I was quite glad to return to my car after an hour or so of looking, knowing that I had a two and a half journey home from my couple of days holiday with my daughter and family. A few photos from my visit are below, but it was hard to get any decent photos of butterflies today. 

path through the bracken

gatekeeper

gatekeepers

pony in the bracken

a view from my walk

looking upwards where the grayling were found

stonechat

grayling

grayling

painted lady