A piece of summer

It finally felt like summer was here last week but it didn't last long, a day or so and that was all. The clouds and the rain have been at the forefront, is climate change to blame here?

While the sun was out a few pairs of Common Blue Damselflies Enallagma cyathigerum appeared so I took the opportunity to photograph them:

Common Blue Damselflies

North Norfolk holiday 12-18th June 2012

A thoroughly enjoyable week in North Norfolk in the middle of June, knocked up a fair few species of birds, but there were a shortage of insects most likely due to the dreadful weather conditions that the whole country had to embrace for months on end.

Species seen:
Reptiles:

• Adder Vipera berus 
• Common Lizard Lacerta vivipara  

Male Common Lizard

Butterflies:

• Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas 
• Speckled Wood  Pararge aegeria 
• Swallowtail Papilio machaon ssp britannicus 
• Wall Brown Lasiommata megera

Swallowtail

Birds (heard only):

• Green Woodpecker Picus viridis
• Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur

Birds (seen)
(There are 88 altogether but I'm just going to name a few):

• Barn Owl Tyto alba 
• Cettis warbler Cettia cetti
• Common Buzzard Buteo buteo 
• Common Crossbill Loxia recurvirostra 
• Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea  
• Dunlin Calidris alpina
• Dunnock Prunella modularis 
• Firecrest Regulus ignicapillus
• Gadwall Anas strepera 
• Grey Heron Ardea cinerea
• Little Egret Egretta garzetta
• Little Tern Sterna albifrons 
• Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus 
• Mediterranean Gull Larus melanocephalus 
• Nightjar Carprimulgus europaeus 
• Song Thrush Turdus philomelos 
• Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia 
• Woodlark Lullula arborea
• Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella 

Male Reed Bunting

Juvenile Bearded Tits

  Mammals:

• Brown Hare: Lepus capensis
• Chinese Water Deer Hydropotes inermis
• Common Seal: Phoca vitulina
• Fallow Deer Dama dama 
• Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus 
• Water Vole Arvicola terrestris  

Chinese Water Deer

  Insects:

• Black Tailed Skimmer Orthetrum cancellatum
  
• Blue-Tailed Damselflies Ischnura elegans 
• Common Blue Damselflies Enallagma cyathigerum 
• Four-spotted Chaser Libellula quadrimaculata
• Glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca 
• Norfolk Hawker Aeshna isosceles 

Four-spotted Chaser

Glow-worm

Plants (currently trying to learn these):

• Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna 
• Giant Hogweed Heracleum mantegazzianum 
• Orange Hawkweed (Fox and cubs) Hieracium aurantiaca
• Oxeye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare

Red-footed falcon at Willington Gravel Pits

I want to begin by saying I'm not a twitcher, I don't collect sightings of rare birds, destroy habitats and distress the bird. To me the main focus is the welfare of the bird. A couple of years ago I was on the east coast and a rare bird turned up and as I was already there I decided to take a look. I saw the bird but was astonished at the levels people were going to in order to photograph the bird, people were flushing the bird out in order to see it, as soon as they saw it they dashed off, I assume to find another rarity. I was appalled, these people don't seem to have a lot of respect for the wildlife around them, if any at all!

To the title of this post and the red-footed falcon Falco vespertinus. At the beginning of June a red-footed Falcon was seen at Willington Gravel Pits in Derbyshire, it's not too far from where I live so off I went. The usual scenario arose, I arrived and it wasn't there, about 15 minutes later the bird arrived. It was a bird I'd never seen before and was truly magnificent and a real beauty.

The red-footed falcon is most commonly seen in eastern Europe, but from time to time they do appear in Great Britain.

Unfortunately this photo isn't great but was the only decent one I managed to take on the camera I had at the time.

Red-footed falcon

Bempton Cliffs (28th May)

I'm trying to get up to date with my photographs, I've been quite busy recently with one thing or another, but finally University is over for 4 months so I have time to take photographs and wildlife watch, alongside doing my dissertation.So I'm back tracking on some of my photos and placing them on here.

So, on the 28th May, I went to Bempton Cliffs to see the seabirds there, there were the usual puffins Fratercula arctica, guillemots Uria aalge, fulmars Fulmarus glacialis and kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla.

Unfortunately due to light conditions and the weather conditions I didn't take a lot of photographs, but the one below stood out to me: a lonesome guillemot in what looks a desolate landscape.

Guillemot

Whisby Nature Reserve (May 21st)

A first for me today: a beautiful nightingale! A friend managed to record the song on his dictaphone and it's a bird song I could listen to forever.
Besides the nightingale there were plenty of common terns Sterna hirundo and black headed gulls with chicks.

Common Tern