Spotted Flycatchers

Recently had a nice afternoon with a family of Spotted Flycatchers at the Lodge where the family had been successful breeding season with the family on its second brood which is good news for this species as in hertfordshire there struggling species so hope they can pick up again. This family was very active when i was there with younster from the previous brood hanging around and feeding themselves in the tree tops and hedge near the nest site while the adult were feeding the currently brood.

Mother with food

Youngster in the box at least three in there

One of the first brood youngster cleaning itself

 

and a blackbird eyeing up the fruit

August visit to thursley

Headed to Thursley Common a nice sight to the with a great maze of heather everywhere. Headed to the main boys where had a nice hunting hobby trying to catch many of the dragonflies. Walking around had many different types of Dragonflies with Black Darter everywhere (but very hard to actually photograph) along with Broad-boadier Chaser, Southern Hawker, Emperer Dragonfly. On the edge had lot of Lizards in the boardwalk along with a few Red-eyed Damselflies,  Common Blues Damselflies, Variable Damselflies, Blue-tailed Damselflies and lots of Emerald Damselflies lots try to shelter from the wind.

In the main heath land lots of Stonechats seemed to be on almost every gorse bush with a least three family groups around that i saw. In the main sandy area of the heath manged to find some more unusal insects with a Bog Bush-cricket and a Hornet Robberfly both local to heathand areas.

Black Darter on boardwalk

Young Emerald Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

 

 

Common Lizard Close up

Commno lizard with full body

Hornet Robberfly

 

 

Bog Bush-cricket

 

 

Young Stonechat

Hunting for the Brown Hairstreak

Went on a walk to look for the Brown Hairstreak at Whitecross Green Wood on a lovely sunny morning started off well with a possible sighting but could't be confirmed so carried on down the main ride where we had lots of Purple Hairstreak flying about in the trees along with Meadow Brown, Gatekeepers a late Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral along with lots of Common Darter Dragonflies. We then headed into a clearing where a lot of work had been done where we had another possible sighting always hard when the butterflies are at the top of the tree!!. After leaving the clearing did the loop where we had a very good number of Brimstones around 9 along with more Silver-washed Fritillary all female, Small Cooper, Specked Wood and a section of Whites but sadly no conifmed Brown Hairsteak.

Female Common Darter

Male Common Darter

Male Brimstone

Small Cooper

Then in the afternoon payed a visit to Aston Rowant where more Silver-spotted Skippers had come out with 30 -50 in flight along with some fresh Brown Argus to go with the hundreds of Chalkhill Blues made a good end to the afternoon.

Silver-spotted Skipper

Brown Argus

Canoe Sprint and Silver-spotted Skipper

Had a great day out at the canoe sprint last week with the hungary fans excellent giving an wonderful atmosphere and rewared with two gold medals in the last two main races. The day started with an impressive 15 seated wooden canoe from canada which had won a competition to be in london before a warmup to the main events with a four seater canoe pulling a wind surfer then we had A and B finals for Men Kayak and Canoe sprint along with the ladies Kayak it was great to see the sportstars at the top of there game. At the end a few of the medals winners were out out with the hungary fans sighing tickets and showing off there medals.

The Wooden Canoe

Canoe Power

Kayak Racing (1000m)

Canoe Racing which the german won

Kayak Racing Doubles

Ladies fours racing with the eventually winners Hungary

Ladies fours after getting there medals

The hungary fans

Roland Kokeny showing off his gold medal

In the afternoon headed off to Aston Rowant to look for butterflies with Silver-spotted Skippers the main target despite being windy quite a few were around though perfering the lower section of the site though very tricky to photograph again for this time of year hundreds of Chalkhill Blues on site there seem to be having having a good year also around Common Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Large White and a few Essex and Small Skippers.

Feeding Silver-spotted Skipper

Slimbridge

We having the week off and having a mixed day with the weather at the weekend decided to end to Slimbridge. Despite getting there before opening it allowed me to attempt to get a few images off the commoner birds which were dotted around the entrance though sadly the only bird playing ball was the Wood Pigeon but my best images of this bird. Once in walked around the bird enclosures with the Nene showing best.

Then when to the main hides where there 200+ Black-tailed Godwits with the usual bonus of a Long-billed Dowitcher with them. Other birds out out on the scrape where Redshank agin over 200, Shelducks with young, Greenshank, Common Terns, Coot, Moorhen, Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Mute Swan and Buzzard.

Wood Pigeon close up

Nene

Greylag

 

 

Godwits in Flight

Black-tailed Godwit in the water

Long-billed Dowitcher with the Godwits

Rowing at the olympics

Last week had some standing tickets to see some rowing at the olympics which was a nice chance to see some live sport as i don't get to see it very often the day i went had mainly Repechages which is another chances for teams to get into the final. The atmosphere was great with people cheering on all athletes but where the british rowers appeared the level was unbelievable a wonderful experience.

The woman eights rowing

Kim Crow rowing for Australia

Men fours racing

The men double sculls