Today was a day tour, we started with running through the contents of last nights, moth trap. Unsurprisingly, in the warm weather there was a nice selection - highlights from the trap were:- 2 Burnished Brass, 2 Eyed Hawkmoth, Elephant hawkmoth, Peppered Moth, Scorched Wing, Latticed heath & Ghost Moth. Including Small Magpie, there was 29 species & around 60 individuals.
We then headed up to the coast, a really nice surprise drifted low across the road - a male HONEY BUZZARD, it appeared to have come down low after a squally shower had just started we had brief but very good views as it flew east & was mobbed by crow. We hung around for 20 minutes after the shower cleared but didn't see it again. We then headed on further north, we stopped off at a good vantage point & scanning produced a good selection of birds - 6+ Marsh Harrier, 8+ Buzzard, a RED KITE, Sparrowhawk & Kestrel. Plus good views of a Turtle Dove.
We then tried another location - more raptors, in fact raptors galore! 10+ Buzzard, 10+ Marsh Harrier, 2 Hobby, 3+ RED KITE, but star & unlikeliest bird was an adult dark phase ARCTIC SKUA, which flew towards us & then overhead flying strongly & inland.
We then headed over to an estuarine area, here on arrival we had a SPOONBILL fly over. We then had nice views of 2 Little Terns fishing, plus Common Tern. Several more Marsh Harrier put in appearances, plus another Hobby. Less expected was a single Pink-footed Goose, an over summering bird that was probably unwell in the spring & didn't make the journey north.
We rounded the day off at a coastal fen, with a good selection of birds, a summer plumaged Spotted Redshank, 2 Little Ringed Plover, & at least 6 superb adult Mediterannean Gulls!
This evenings session started with an overviews of Barn owl, Tawny Owl & Little Owl, plus the opportunity to examine the contents of an owl pellet. Then I was able to show the group (rather sadly!) a recently deceased Tawny Owl - this was one of our recently fledged youngsters that had clearly starved, & was perhaps the runt of the nest.
The evenings birding was made a little more difficult by a blustery wind, however we still saw all the target species - some rather more easily than others!
My first Barn owl location was for the first time unproductive, but another location provided lovely views of a Barn owl perched on a post out of the wind against a hedgerow, it stayed sat whilst everyone had wonderful scope views. A oadside Little Owl was seen briefly by two of use, but the nearby & recently fledged a family of Little Owls put in an award winning performance. All four dancing up & down along a wall!
We arrived at the heathland location around 9.30PM, but it was nearer 10Pm before the magical "churring" the first Nightjar could be heard. We hear 2-3 birds & eventually after quite a lot of effort managed to see a male & female Nightjar, plus a further male after the light had faded.
The evening finished with 2-3 Tawny Owls very close by calling, after a bit of walking & calling them we eventually had a great views in torchlight of a Tawny Owl sat above our heads.
Today was spent with a novice photographer using a bridge camera, we worked some basic principles & then went out to shoot dragonflies, butterflies, orchids & birds. The birds & butterflies proved a little tricky with the bridge camera, but even so Richard managed a couple of nice images to take home. He also learnt about the relationship of aperture, shutter speed, depth of field & composition.
The one thing that is always self evident though with bridge cameras is how difficult the "bokeh" (soft background) is to reproduce!
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After the Nightjar & owl session last night that finished just after 11PM, a later start was in order. Despite some heavy showers there was a reasonable selection of moths for the group to have a look through, 18 species & 32 moths. The highlights of the moths were 2 Privet Hawk, Elephant Hawk,Poplar Kitten, Scorched Wing, Shoulder-striped Wainscot &Light Emerald. Tree Sparrow & Marsh Tit were also noted from the garden feeders whilst looking through the moths.
We then headed over to a local woodland where Greater Butterfly orchid was still in flower & Willow warbler, Blackcap & Bullfinch were all heard.
The weather worsened & some very heavy showers, resorted to an hours tea-break with a short Norfolk slideshow of wildlife thrown in.
The weather improved a little but ensured our "insect" day was not easy! We visited some nearby heathland in the afternoon, here we witnessed a wonderful spread 1000's of orchids, Heath Spotted & Southern Marsh being by far the most numerous. We searched for dragonflies & located 2 female Keeled Skimmers (image below), 1 Common Darter, Common Blue & Large Red Damselfly were all noted, plus single Meadow Brown & 2 Common Blue butterflies. Plus Yellowhammer, Linnet, Reed Bunting, Green Woodpecker, Kestrel & Sparrowhawk.
Roll on summer...................
Guided birdwatching today started with great views of 6 Stone Curlew. Also Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Linnet in the same field. We moved on to Lakenheath, where despite very windy conditions we managed a nice mixture of birds & insects. A male Golden Oriole was still singing albeit briefly, Marsh harriers were much in evidence coming to & fro from their nesting areas. We had a couple of views of Bearded Tit, a Hobby put in short appearance & we had good views of Whitethroat, Reed Warbler & Reed Bunting. On the wing was also 4 Spotted Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser, Azure Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Common Blue & Variable Damselfly.
In the afternoon we tracked down Grey wagtail, Spotted Flycatcher, Marsh Tit & Treecreeper. Moving on to th Brecks heathland we then had lovely views of a singing Wood Lark, plus another brief Hobby.
Returning home we had a cup of tea & watched two freshly emerged Southern Hawker's sitting out on vegetation around our garden pond.Plus a Tree Sparrow at the garden feeders
After an evening meal, I took the group out for the evening session, which proved very successful with no less than 6 Little Owl, including recently fledged young sitting on a wall, 2 Barn owl, 3 Nightjar & 3 Tawny Owl, the latter sitting in full view of the car head lights.
Today was a One to One photography day & the weather wasn't so great! I spent a couple of hours going through principles with Matthew before he headed out into our rear garden & hide, where he secured a few shots of some of our birds. We then headed off in the afternoon to a local heathland area, where he was able to practice some macro photography on orchids & also had the opportunity to photograph an Adder.
Some of the images from the workshop are below.
If you wish to view sightings prior to 21 June 2012 - please click on the following link this will take you back to the blog on our website, where you can view all of our sightings & trips back to 2009.
Nightjar & Owl Session last night went very well, with 4 Barn Owls, 3 Little Owls, flight & perched views of 2 Nightjars & last off great views via torchlight of a perched calling Tawny Owl! June 29th session is now fully booked, but spaces on evening of 6th July.
Buxton Heath in the morning - Keeled Skimmers on the wing now, plus 4 Spot Chasers. Also very nice 1000+ Marsh Orchids. Came back after lunch to discover 3 Broad-bodied Chaser showing very well in the front garden pond, took an hour over this male get some nice pics!