Sunday 27 July 2008

dragonflies and butterflies

as yesterday still fucking warm,all the birds are hiding so more dragonflies.
if photographing swifts is hard then dragonflies 'in flight' is even harder,which is why my photos of them are crap.

common darter


four spotted chaser


emperor dragonfly



blue tailed damselfly


comma


a skipper???


common darter


emerald damselfly


speckled wood


emperor dragonfly



Saturday 26 July 2008

stalag tophill low, you will obey and conform to the 'rules'

well its fucking hot

today went to north cave,tophill low and faxfleet
in the heat north cave excelled itself with a YNU visit,who had permission to go were they want so i gave up on that,as the YNU consist of old people and not girls in strappy tops.
now tophill low not been here for nearly 10 years,or should i say 'stalag tophill' far to many rules here to make it enjoyable plus you can walk round the res without seeing it now thats great and get harassed by wardens who think you have entered without paying,for fucks sake i paid my £2.50 just to have proof that i'd been, if the over the top number of speed bumps fucked my car up.
yes tophill low is a shit reserve

faxfleet on the other hand is not reserve so it was the highlight of the day................

hobby 1
little egret 4
greenshank 5




emerald damselfly


ruddy darter


hobby
faxfleet


greenshank
faxfleet


reed buting
north cave


common tern
'stalag tophill'


ruddy or common
north cave


black tailed skimmer
north cave

Tuesday 22 July 2008

#99 nearly there!!!!

classic weather conditions up 'the with' this evening.south west wind, low cloud/mist on the tops with brighter skies to the east.
very little on the walk to the res.at the res it was murky so i checked the south shore for any waders,alas non but a bird on res caught my eye,a fucking female RED BREASTED MERGANSER well it wasnt fucking as it was on its own but a fucking great bird for the 'with' and a good one locally.
4 black headed gulls came in from the east but headed back after a few minutes.

red breasted merganser



red breasted merganser 1 female
black headed gull 4
little ringed plover 2
meadow pipit 14
reed bunting 1
canada goose nc
carrion crow 1
kestrel 2
pied wagtail 2

Sunday 20 July 2008

bempton 20th july

kittiwake




kestrel



gannet



puffin


a good day

i prefer flambourgh for seabirds but its summer so full of chavscum.but bempton was ok if only for the fact it was full of polish women who were stunning one even had a pair of swarovskis!!.after chatting about birds in broken english my day was complete.

Monday 14 July 2008

KARMA

on the way to res this evening i spot a balloon in the bracken,and notice a tag so i wander over it says

danny age 1
belfast
n.ireland
(mobile number)

so i text the number saying

'just found your balloon pink with a panda bear in west yorkshire'

seconds later

'your joking mate,i let it go last night in belfast for the child,thanks mate'

so off i set happy that in years to come the family would talk about the time the little childs balloon was found in yorkshire.
maybe some karma was in order.........................

and it was for there on the res was a adult summer great crested grebe a patch tick,number 98 for 'the with', a bit distant hence the shit pics but still a good bird.
and it continued

little ringed plover 2
lesser black backed gull 4
common gull 1
black headed gull 7

a great visit

karma the way to go!

great crested grebe
#98 for 'the with'


Friday 11 July 2008

sorry

for not really posting on all my top blogs for a while,usual stuff for excuses(women,car,birding)
so

zooms glad the election went the way it did for you

boulmer birder well just top notch stuff

mostly macro little swift you jammy bugger

whitby birding more birds less kids holding dead/injured animals

Thursday 10 July 2008

the leicester llamas


some market trader

well fuck me with sticks if the funniest birding website is back up and running............

the leicester llamas

we want to hear from ..........................

anyone who thinks metallic blue and silver shell suits are cool(especially when worn with wellies)

Tuesday 1 July 2008

sunday and monday evening owls

local halifax site undisclosed

sunday evening was very windy but still great views of the long eared owls(one adult and one juvenile)perched up,the juv was calling constantly,only gave it 20 mins cos of the wind


long eared owl


long eared owl
juvenile

monday evening.
back again lot less wind and bright evening sunlight

one long eared owl hunting on one side of the track and a short eared owl on the other side,fantastic stuff.
really nice to see both species at the same time to compare size,shape and colour.

now 3 young LEO's calling at this site,another adult was seen going into another site from here and a quick scan of the other 2 site viewable from here produced nothing.
also another short eared owl seen.

long eared owl
darker,shorter bodied,wide rounded wings


short eared owl
pale,longer bodied,slender longer winged


i must note that though this site is 'undisclosed' all my photos are taken from a public footpath/track