Newton St Loe in the Drizzle

Date:31/08/2015

Location:Newton st Low, Full patch walk

Weather:Cloudy with rain at times.

 Other Species:Kingfisher,Buzzard,Kestrel,Yellowhammer,Barn Swallow,House Martin,Bullfinch,Goldcrest,Greenfinch,Jay,Grey Heron,Chiffchaff.

 Observation:

Started the walk through Bath Mill and within seconds the resident kingfisher called and flew downstream.Lots of hundrines overhead around 20 Barn and 20 House martins
Also this nice Female Common Darter on top of dog track.

Lots of Wood Pigeon about 150+ Not alot else about until Kestrel just before road flying over Seven acre.More Hundrines overhead the in Newton Church 3/4 Goldcrest in yew tree.

Out through village and saw first Buzzard, along college drive then onto first lake A Green Woodpecker calling mixed with Rook,Jackdaw,Crow and Raven.On Top Lake another Kingfisher distant. No sign of little owl :( Grass very long. I'll keep looking.

After College across football pitch 2 herring gulls were on the pitch 2 more Buzzards towards Marksbury then in Rapeseed field 10 or so Goldfinches,Tits and Chiffchaff feeding.

Top of hill by farm 6 Yellowhammers were never staying still, Blackbirds, Dunnock and Wren were also feeding.

Then Along 12 o'clock lane spotted this Buzzard and he spotted me and as usual took to the skies!

Wires and white skies Perfect! 

Further along lane a Bull was out of field i stayed brave and usher him into field he Broke the barbed wire fence and re-entered the field ! 

Hard AS!

Cheers for now :)

Adonis Blue makes it 41 !

Date: 27/08/2015

Location: Rodborough Common & Slimbridge

Weather: There wasn't snow! But rain, wind, thunder temp 12-20c

Other Species:

Rodborough: Redstart, Kestrel - Chalkhill Blue, Adonis Blue, Tortoiseshell, Small White.

Slimbridge: Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, Buzzard, Ruff, Snipe.

Observations:With my trusted BBC Weather app saying sunshine thought I'd drive up Rodborough Common as Adonis Blue here day before, thanks to Twitter ! 

But the drive up soon turned wet and grey! On arriving a gap in the cloud and I was off over the Common saw a lovely Redstart but lens cap on camera !

Almost the first butterfly I saw was a Adonis Blue hiding in grass but now its raining !! 

Back to Van for coffee after 20 mins it stopped so back to where I saw Adonis, very few butterflies not surprising windy and the odd rumble of thunder !

Didn't find any more Adonis Blues but that one puts my Butterfly life list to 41 !

 Around 20 Chalkhill blues all landing low in grass :(

Clouding over again.

 Jumped in Van and started to drive to Slimbridge, that coffee I left on side has just fallen into my walking bag! Nice ;(

But it's now sunny, car park very full. Headed to Rushy Hide and a Common Sandpiper was scurrying in front of hide.

A Greenshank standing still looked nice in the sunshine.

Green Sandpipers of which there were 10+ were buzzing all over the place 

Also Ruff, Snipe, Lapwing, Greylags from the Rushy hide.

Last shot was Wednesday went for a walk there on My Site Here, while there thought I'd look for Silver Spotted Skipper, yeah right good job Met Office ! Again .

Thanks For Reading !

Raining - Feeder Watch & Small Patch Walk

Date: 25/08/2015
Location: Home then small patch walk to Newton St Loe

 Weather: Raining most of day but brightened up evening
Other Species:

Feeders: Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Collared Dove, Wood Pigeon + Lesser Black Backed Gull, Buzzard, 2 Swift, Barn Swallow, House Martin - Over Head

NSL: Long  Tailed Tits, Kingfisher, Buzzard, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Magpie, Wood Pigeon, Dunnock, Robin, Barn Swallow, House Martin, House Sparrow, Crow, Goldfinch, Collared Dove + 1 Roe Deer

Observation: Wanted to walk but raining all day so stayed at window watching feeders, plenty of birds visiting Greenfinch and Bullfinch families a highlight! 4 Greenfinch 3 Bullfinch.

 This one Juvenile

 Think this one must be Dad, old and haggered !

 

10/20 Goldfinch seem to be around most of day.

 OOO  OOO Collared Dove on black !

Not so common Blue Tits don't seem to get as many as last year :(

Noticed this Female Chaffinch poor thing, 

First spotted her August 2nd .

Last year had a couple of other chaffinch's with foot rot.

 Female and Male just Bullfinches very jumpy !

As usual Goldfinches Squabling !

Then the sun came out so after tea headed out through campsite, I mean Bath Mill all finished now and looks good.

On Brook the Kingfisher darted past me and disappeared. While watching a Mistle Thrush was collecting worms almost at my feet I lifted the camera up and gone !!

Walking up byway saw this Roe Deer .

At Village around 50 Barn Swallows a few House Martin and ! 5 House Sparrows a short but  pleasant walk on leaving Bath Mill the bank at its exit in full bloom all planted by Bath Mill.

 Good Job !

If you see this, Thanks For Visiting !

Slimbridge - WWT

Date: 20/08/2015

Location: Slimbridge

Weather: Cloudy, then rain then... cloudy temp 19c 

Other Species: Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Ruff, Common Crane, Greylag, Rook, Kestrel - Plus many many more .

Observation: Spent a couple of hours at Slimbridge today, very full car park and lots of kids :( So headed for hides out the way, At Holden saw a Sparrowhawk buzz by, saw him again 3 more times around reserve sadly no pictures. But Monty(black,green,red) was out front of hide for while and a single Green Sandpiper.

On Rushy Common Sandpipers, Ruff, Greylag and Lapwings. 

The Lego Work is great definitely bringing in the kids !

The Mallard above is in Swan Lake just outside Visitor Center and the Grey Heron here feeding 7ft from footpath caught 3 fish while I watched him .

Stunning Birds

 After a couple of hours the final tour of hides and I saw a male Kingfisher from Martyn Smith hide nice ! Caught a fish but I missed the strike.

Spent a couple of minutes on perch as the hide filled up with aahhh oooo !

 Tis a great looking bird !

 My 30th trip to Slimbridge and a great way to end day ! 

Thanks For Looking :)

Patch Walking - Newton St Loe

Date: 13-18/08/2015

Location: Patch Walk To Lake  

Weather: Cloudy, Overcast - Both Walks 

Other Species: Barn Swallow, House Martin, Buzzard, Kingfisher, 3 Grey Heron, 8 Mute Swan.

Butterflies: Meadow Brown, Small White, Large White, Peacock, Holly Blue, Brimstone, Comma, Small Copper.

Observation: Two walks in one blog, First picture from an evening walk quite 20 Barn Swallow at Village, 2 Buzzards in copse, fisherman's car park. Calling loudly, one juv I think.

While watching noticed I was being watched too !

Today being 18th headed out again. Seven Acre 2 holly blues few white's Gatekeeper about.

Also this Magpie Moth 

At Village noticed one House Martin I think ?

  Alot of House Sparrows at farm shop 

Around 30 despite hedge being cut rather violently !

2 Adult and a juv Grey Heron busy fishing top lake 

Sat with Mallards about 20 on lake at moment.

Walked back through lanes and found a Small Copper.

Thanks For Reading !

Fontmell Down & The SSS

Date: 12/08/2015

Location: Fontmell Down

Weather: Temp Rising all day to 25c - but some cloud and gusty wind. 

Other Species: Brimstone, Large White, Meadow Brown, Chalkhill Blue, Commom Blue, Small Skipper, Silver Spotted Skipper, Clouded Yellow, Small Heath, Dark Green Fritillary, Brown Argus, Small Blue, Small Copper.

Observation:  Up over Spread-Eagle Hill, blue skies and a full car park ! Waited 10 mins and a space opened up so headed off in search of Silver Spotted Skipper. Seemed to be two groups of people on opposite hill but carried on alone searching with nothing. Saw lots of Chalkhill, Common Blues and Brown Argus then a Clouded Yellow with wings open but missed the shot !

The wind was a little gusty and the butterflies were not posing for long.

More Chalkhill Blues than anything else on lower slopes.

5 or 6 Small Copper's around

Then after speaking to the other groups who were BC-Somerset  BC-Dorset  they found our first Silver Spotted - Camera Bad Setting ! Doh !

After another hour searching backwards and forwards along hill 10 or so hands seem to waving at me ? I rushed over and in a jar they've found another! After it was released it disappeared completely! A tricky thing to find on Fontmell may try again in week or two .

  

A Pretty Chalkhill on Knapweed 

Back towards car park now and down little track, the old Quarry on left always a good bet for Small Blue. Feeding on Kidney Vetch

And finally Brimstone Male

I Checked on Google Earth to see how far I walked, 5 miles, felt like 20!

But with nice people stunning views and some beautiful butterflies a Great Day was had!

Thanks For Looking !

Crook Peak & Priddy Mineries

Date: 11/08/2015

Location: Crook Peak & Priddy Mineries

Weather: 17.5c Cloudy, No Blue Skies, No Wind 

.Other Species: Common Blue, Gate Keeper, Meadow Brown, Wall, Grayling, Large White, Small Skipper, Silver Washed Fritillary, Marbled Whites.

Birds Green Woodpecker, Kestrel, Stonechat, Buzzard, Raven.

Observation: Weather not doing butterflies any favours this year, not the numbers of last year for me anyway. Headed to Crook Peak for a wander just inside gate Common Blues around 4, 3 Male and 1 female male But not stopping so headed up to look for Grayling.

Few Birds on hill.....Green Woodpecker x2

Stonechat with a rather nice Bokken view !

And this lovely Kestrel, hunting on lower slopes

Seemed small areas had a few butterflies then nothing this Wall Brown stopped briefly, there were more on summit of Crook Peak.

Then my target a Grayling.

Not quite the background I wanted but a Grayling all the same .

On Heading back down 2 or 3 Tortoiseshells looking fabulous !

A Large White on budlieia.

The Common Blues at bottom were a bit more cooperative now.

 Even a bit of mating going on !

Can you see Mites ? 

 Next off to Priddy Mineries and into Stockhill Carpark Scraping the roof bars as usual !

More Cloud now so not holding out much hope headed on to the  Mineries saw this Common footman.

 I Think a Nicrophorus vespillo a Burying Beetle. 

Complete with Mite? or Young ? 

Thought i'd look into Woods and saw 6 Silver Washed Fritillarys On Knapweed within 10ft of each other Looking Splendid ,and with Dark Background !

Just gotta love them Eh !!

Thanks For Looking :)