Painted Lady

I went to the nature reserve for a couple of hours yesterday, trying to get some good pics, once again I ended up kicking myself for spooking a Grass snake before I had chance to lift the camera.

There was quite a few butterflies about and I also saw one of the Kingfishers. This Painted Lady was probably the best pic of the day.

New Forest

I have been to busy to get out with the camera just lately, we drove down to Lymington yesterday to pick up some friends from the Isle of Wight who are going to be stopping with us for a few days. On the way we drove through part of the New Forest, which looks a great place to explore. So I am definitely going to spend some more time there as soon as possible.
In the meantime here is a pic of one of our the local Moorhens, caught in the early morning light.

Bonking Beetle!

Absolutely loads of these beetles about. I am sure I read somewhere that these were also known as Bonking Beetles, which seems very apt as that is exactly what most of them seem to be doing!.

Its raining Again

Well it's raining again in the Midlands, although not as bad as the Northeast seems to be getting it. At least the dampness brings the Snails out. I always think they are very photogenic, and at least they don't move very quickly Lol.

I think I have the I.D. right on this one, but if anybody disagrees please let me know.

Looking back

I was looking back at some of the pics I took last winter, I thought they might be of interest. The Kingfisher seems to move off the river onto the nature reserve pond in the winter, presumably

there is more food available. They also do this in the summer when the river is in flood.

There is always quite a few Long Tail Tits around in the winter as well. I don't know what others think, but this pic seems to almost have a Japanese print feel to it.

Nature reserve

I went down to the nature reserve yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours, the only spare time I had this weekend, and actually saw quite a lot. There was a fleeting glimpse of one of the Kingfishers, three different Green Woodpeckers, Dabchick with chick, Moorhen with chick, usual assorted butterflies & one grass snake which disappeared before I had time to photograph it

The nature reserve is run by the wildlife trust and consists of a couple of meadows, a pond and a wooded walk, all bordering the River Arrow. although small It always surprises me how much there is to see. Sometimes it can be to busy with dog walkers or kids, but that is all part of where it is located.

Anyway here is a couple of pics taken there.

House Martins

This pic shows one of the House Martins nesting on the back of our house with a good beak full of insects. It is the 5th year that the nest has been used, I am pretty sure that this is the second brood of the year.

There appears to be a good population of House Martins around our estate, as the sky is always full of them.

It is always fascinating to watch them feed and to listen to the soft chirruping from the chicks.

Good news / Bad news.

First the good news, we have been doing well with Goldfinches visiting the feeders in our garden.

It seemed to take ages to attract them onto the Nyjer seed but eventually they took to arriving

on a regular basis, in fact it became more unusual not to see them. One pair has definitely had one brood with two or three youngsters. Today when I was making breakfast I looked out to see at least four adults and three or four youngsters which is the most I have seen in the garden at one time, so I went to work quite pleased with the way things were going.

Later on in the morning I rang my wife to see whether the post I had been waiting for had arrived, only to be told that one of our dogs had caught a bird in the garden and that by the time she had got it off the dog, it was already dead. She told me she thought it was one of the young Goldfinches but was not sure, so she kept it for me to identify. Unfortunately it was one of the youngsters so that was the bad news for the day. I was surprised the dog had managed to catch it, I said to my wife we will have to put a bell on him like a cat collar!.

Grass Snake.

( Image best viewed large )

This pic was taken about two weeks ago, again I have found it very hard to get any really good shots as the head always seems to be hidden in the undergrowth. Just lately they seem to have done a disappearing act, I have not seen one since this pic was taken, despite the heatwave where I thought I might find some basking. Perhaps there has been too much disturbance lately, moving them elsewhere?.

Small Tortoiseshell

A couple of pics of Small Tortoiseshell butterflies also taken at Alcester nature reserve yesterday. It was very hot and quite windy which made it challenging to get any good pics.

First post

First post!. This should be interesting as I have never done one of these before.
I spent a couple of hours down Alcester's nature reserve yesterday looking for grass snakes to
photograph, did not find any so I had to be content with pics of butterflies. Plenty of Ringlets,
Meadow Browns & some Small Tortoiseshell's.