Brampton Woods - 11th July 2011

I called in at Brampton Woods with the hope of catching one of the UK's rarest butterflies the Black Hairstreak. There are 5 known sites in the woods where they can be seen but its at the end of their short flying season so hopes weren't high. The weather didn't help either, it was warm but cloudy with a slight wind not ideal conditions so I wasn't disapointed when I didn't see one maybe next year.

                                Ringlet

 There are plenty of other species to be seen with Ringlet being the main one flying low in the long grass and flowers rarely landing. The bottom photograph shows a very worn specmen which amazingly was still able to fly.

                               Essex Skipper

There were 3 species of Skipper, Essex Large and Small. They can be distinguished by their antenae with the Essex having a black tip and the Small having an orange tip.

                                Large Skipper 

                                Small Skipper                              

Only one Brown Argus could be found on my visit and no other small blues seemed to be present but this may be due to the weather.

 



Other species included Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Green-veined White also reported at the site are White and and Purple Hairstreak.

                                Gatekeeper

                                Green-veined White

                                Meadow Brown

                                Red Admiral

                                Speckled Wood

Cuerden Valley Park Dragonfly Pond - 3rd July 2011

I spent a sunny couple of hours up at the Dragonfly pond at CVP with plenty of Damselflies around as well as a few species of Dragonfly. The first notisable Dragonfly was a patrolling Emperor Dragonfly which on 2 occasions rested on some reeds at the edge of the pond. Though I attempted to get some flight shots they were poor at best I did managed a few reasonable shots at rest mainly using manual focus. Amongst the shrubs around the pond were several 4 Spotted Chasers probably one of the most photogenic of all Dragonflies and certainly one of my favourite.

ABOVE EMPEROR DRAGONFLY BELOW AND TOP 4 SPOTTED CHASER

                              

                                

Damselfly included Azure, Blue Tailed and Large Red though the latter is rather smaller than its blue cousins.

ABOVE LARGE RED DAMSELFLY BELOW BLUE_TAILED DAMSELFLY

ABOVE AZURE BLUE OVIPOSTING BELOW AZURE BLUE MALE

As I left I spotted a Brown Darter so I waited around in hope of it resting somewhere to enable a few photographs but after a brief encounter with Emperor it took a Damselfly and disapeared into the nearby trees to enjoy its lunch!

Nessebar, Bulgaria - 10th - 21st June 2011

Things have been quiet on the blog of late due to problems with my laptop which still infected with viruses and is soon to end up through the window! There have been a few trips out mainly to Brockholes and Stags Lodge but I thought I'd come back with our recent trip to Nessebar in Bulgaria. The trip didn't go to well as far as birds went but we did well with Butterflies which will be on a later post once I've ID them all. On the visit to Bulgaria we spent a day in a reserve on the Turkey / Bulgarian border but most of the birds were photographed in and around the hotel complex and having forgoten to take my charger these are few and far between.

 ABOVE AND BELOW YELLOW LEGGED GULL

The trip out looked promising with several nesting Stork on view and Little Egret, Grey Heron and Cormarant seen out of the Land Rover as we passed a wetland. Once we arrived at the national park though things took a downturn as we were accompanied by 60 Ukranian kids on a summer camp, you can't imagine!! Dipper & Kingfisher were 2 good birds along with a Grey Wagtail but chance of seeing much else went out the window. Apparantly there are Bears on the reserve and we hoped the kids would come across one!!

ABOVE AND BELOW GOLDEN ORIOLE 

The hotel grounds was fruitful with a Golden Oriole seen daily along with a Jay, Swift, House Martin, Swallow and House Sparrow all nesting on site. Yellow-legged Gulls were the only gulls we saw on the trip and were abundant around the hotel.

ABOVE AND BELOW CRESTED LARK 

 We discovered a Crested Lark on a walk into Nessebar, the local town and even though we spent 2 hours in the heat searching around a local sand dune reserve we didn't see much else.

ABOVE JAY BELOW WHITETHROAT

 Other birds on the trip iincluded Starling, Hooded Crow, Jackdaw, White Wagtail, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, and Goldfinch. Not a great list but I think we'll return in the coming years, next time hiring a car and spending a bit more time birding.