Monday 4 October 2010

Small White Butterfly


After work this afternoon I ventured over to the Lakes and scrub area via the Wet Woods and Small Holding, the latter habitat looked promising for the first Redwing of the Autumn, with lots of falling crab apples and pears, but none had arrived yet. 5 JAYS were seen though, they are showing themselves well now, as they always do at this time of year, in a few weeks time they will dissolve back into the woods, to be heard but not seen. The Wet Woods were completely silent in the windless conditions, except for a distant ROBIN, one of the only songsters left at this time of year, but its cheerful song easily filled every corner of the woods.
On the lakes 25 MALLARD and 7 MOORHEN were seen, most of these on the main lake, whilst I was counting the Mallard a SPARROWHAWK flew over, making all the LONG TAILED TITS trill loudly in the distance. Not much else happening here, I could here GOLDCRESTS and the MARSH TIT calling, as well as NUTHATCH'S, above me the sky briefly filled with a scattering of HOUSE MARTINS, then they were gone as suddenly as they appeared.
Moving on to Migrant Alley, I stopped to photograph a Small White Butterfly in the Tree Nursery, and as I did, I heard a YELLOW WAGTAIL (54) call loudly as it flew Southwards, a good inclusion for the October list, and the second latest recording date for this summer species. Also in the Tree Nursery were 200-250 STARLINGS feeding on the Laurel berries, they were very flighty, and never stayed down long enough to grab more than one berry at a time - they know there is a Sparrowhawk on the prowl :-)
Migrant Alley itself was not forthcoming with Migrants, except for the 20 or so SWALLOWS feeding over the sheep pasture, these I think are the local breeders, still hanging around. Other than that it was the same species, those being ROOKS, JACKDAWS, LINNETS, PIED WAGTAILS and WOOD PIGEONS. Cutting across the Greenhouse Complex Grounds I found a CHIFFCHAFF in some dense bushes, along with a SONG THRUSH a few BLACKBIRDS, 5 DUNNOCKS, 2 ROBINS and two BULLFINCH'S , what a mixture :-)

9 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

Warren,

I had a Large White and a Peacock in the garden today, in the drizzle to my surprise!
Also had another Peacock on the reserve at lunchtime.

Warren Baker said...

Hi Derek,
I forgot to mention I had a Red Admiral too. It was very warm today, if a tad on the grey side :-)

Derek Faulkner said...

A day like they had at the Ryder Cup would of been nice, clear blue skies and warm sunshine.

Think you might get a tad wet tomorrow afternoon tho.

ShySongbird said...

We had a beautiful sunny day today, a welcome change from the last few days! I haven't seen a butterfly for some time though :(

A good afternoon's collection there, Warren and well done on the Yellow Wagtail!

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Yellow Wag is a good find in October Warren - well done - what next Yellow Browed Warbler? There seems to be plenty about so keep checkin those chiffies.

Cheers

Davo

Chris said...

You are already at 54.. So tell me which species would you like me to send you this month ;-) With the wind we have, you can probably receive it... Well today was nice and I could check that a lot of birds are still over there such as golden plover and northern wheatear...

Anonymous said...

Just the one addition Warren. You cuold tell it was Monday ;-)

kirstallcreatures said...

Still looking out for my first Redwing sighting, not long now....Linda

Fraser Simpson said...

Lots of Jays flying with acorns over busy London streets at the moment here too.