Monday 14 June 2010

A decent enough afternoon weatherwise, although a bit windy, enabled a walk around the Tree Nursery and the sheep pasture/horse paddocks of Migrant Alley. With one eye on the sky ( for the unexpected flyover) I searched for Butterflies and Damselflies along the few remaining hedgerows that hold habitat for them.

The first butterfly seen was a Common Blue, then a well worn, almost see through Small Copper, a few Small Whites flitted about, and just one Large White. My butterfly sighting of the day was finding the first large Skipper of the year, not a very exciting species to look at, but nice to see one :-) Other butterflies seen were Peacock and Red Admiral.

Whilst in the Tree Nursery the only birds of note were the KESTREL and a flyover LESSER BLACKBACKED GULL, however I was surprised when no less than 3 TURTLE DOVES settled on the telephone wires above the hedgerow, more than Ive seen for a while! Over at Migrant Alley, I saw a few Damselflies, Common Blue and Beautiful Demoisel sat still long enough to be photographed. Birds of note here were fewer than the Tree Nursery, just a SPARROWHAWK that was carrying prey back to a probable nest site. I suppose the two singing SKYLARKS deserve a mention though :-)

Above and below: My first large Skipper of the year.

Below: yet another Common Blue pic.

Below is the Common Blue Damselfly

.....and next the Beautiful demoisel damselfly

This is one of the Turtle Doves on the wire, the other two flew before I got the photo - shame.
and finally, This adult male BLACKBIRD had his work cut out, he was feeding no less than 4 well grown fledged young, I got three in the shot but the other one went into the untidy mess of vegetation that is my garden - Proper habitat :-)








8 comments:

Phil said...

Well done with the Large Skipper Warren. By the way can you please not mention Turtle Doves, it's too painful for me :-)

Derek Faulkner said...

Warren,

Funnily enough, alongside the Swale NNR this morning we had the sudden re-appearance of at least two Turtle Doves to a small thicket where they have always bred.
I also had a mega event on my garden feeders today - a cock Chaffinch.

Warren Baker said...

What next Derek, Greenfinches ;-)

Chris said...

Lucky you man, we are getting a lot of wind and then ash from the sleeping volcano... The pollution level was high this afternoon and we could not go out!

ShySongbird said...

Great Large Skipper photos!

A lot been going on here which has put me behind with commenting :( But I enjoyed the post with the recently fledged Tits and the Whitethroat singing. Also nice to actually be able to see the Peregrine :)

Pete Woodruff said...

Quite envious of your Turtle Doves Warren,I truly wouldn't know when the last one was in our area, but I do know it's not in my birding experience and that's about 150 years....well it feels like that anyhow!

Anonymous said...

Untidy is good, Warren. You haven`t seen the bottom of my garden. It`s a jungle down there.

Ghost of Stringer said...

I'd kill for a turtle dove on my patch !