Thursday, 17 September 2009

More from Tuesday... Buzzard shots. Juvenile I think - No moulting - A good tip from Derek for ID'ing them in summer (not that I think its summer now - its too cold in the mornings and my feet are following the same route as my hands - frozen all the time. Never thought I would see the day I would be wearing three pairs of socks before I could leave the bedroom in the mornings!).
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They are amazing - I love watching them - Buzzards that is - not my feet :-) !
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Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Too much work and no time to look at my images from Tuesday still (all 400 of them)! Membership work this evening... Meeting tomorrow... Hey, life's too short to worry though. My image this evening is dedicated to the Abbot, as being deaf he does this all the time!!! :-)

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

A great day... Woodchat Shrike

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Had a great day. Met some nice people along the way, had two life ticks, and maybe more once I have ID'd them (that's the tricky bit - especially with me!). The Abbot decided I needed to beat my day list total today. Not sure what motivated him to this conclusion... Maybe he thought I needed motivating, with me slowing down lately! Anyway, cutting a long story short (as I don't have time to go though it all, list my day list and check my pics etc) my day list was 65. Had we gone to Par on the way home and seen a Coot, it would have been my highest day list so far!!! Sorry, Abbot. The Woodchat Shrike should make up for it. When we arrived an Nanquidno we were not prepared for what followed (the scope was left in the car!). I met a chap on the lane who said the Shrike had been seen at lunchtime, so off we went looking for it. No luck, so we sat on the cliffs for a while and watched a couple of Stonechats. Then I heard a call, which no-one could mistake - Choughs. Two of them. They are expert flyers for sure! We went back to look for the Woodchat Shrike and met up with Graham - a really nice bloke. After waiting a while the prize arrived. Thanks to Graham for letting us have a look through his scope. I took a couple of distant shots and then it was spooked. I spotted it on a stabilising wire and we were back on it. Spooked again and into a more distant pine tree. The shots are my usual "terrible", but I had to put them up!


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I have cut/zoomed on the above to this...!
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Sunday, 13 September 2009

Another quick post as I have to prioritise membership work as opposed to sorting out my pictures from the day. My day list for Butterflies seems to be increasing with the warm weather (8 today), but the bird day list is declining at 39!
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A delightful place to pose for a piccie...
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Rook
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Not my best Wheatear, but I do like these lively birds and cannot resist taking lots of pics!
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I wish I could have done this one more justice, but I think the car was still moving (that's my excuse anyway!)...
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Wall Brown
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Not sure which Grasshopper or Cricket this is. By the way it was hopping around I would go for Groundhopper!... He was livlier than the company he was keeping... In a churchyard!
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Red Admiral (I think)
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Another Silver Y - There seems to be a lot of these about at the moment...
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Spider - I just don't have the time to ID!
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Saturday, 12 September 2009

A quick post, as we have visitors. I had a couple of hours out this afternoon at Par and including my morning head count my day list for birds is: 43. My day list for Butterflies is: 7. It was warm, but windy and trying to photograph a Butterfly on a swinging plant is VERY frustrating! I went off alone. I said to the Abbot we must go our separate ways as we just keep photographing the same things! So off we went... me one way and Trevor the other, although I could see him every now and again appearing through the gorse and keeping an eye on me!

This guy cheered me up. I've been trying to catch one for a while. I took it from two different angles. I have lots of shots, but not enough time to go through them! He rested for a long time - unusually. I think it is a Common Darter...


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Butterflies...
Red Admiral
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This Green Veined White managed to find a small amout of Budlia still in bloom!
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This one I am not sure about. I have looked through my Collins guide - I got as far as Thorn/Hawk! HELP!!!
NOTE: Thanks to John Swann - The Moth is a Silver Y.
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BIG Bumble Bee... I love Bees...
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Friday, 11 September 2009

A black Headed Gull enjoying some sunshine (for a change!) at Par...


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Thursday, 10 September 2009

HELP THE SEALS - PLEASE

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Some people may disapprove of me putting this on my blog, but it's something I feel very strongly about and if encourages just one person to join the fight and ask their friends to consider it, then it is worthwhile. The link below takes you to the PETA site and describes Canada's annual seal hunt. There is a video and please watch it with CAUTION. It is very distressing. I have still not managed to watch it to the end.

http://www.peta.org/feat-canadaSealHunt.asp
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