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Tuesday 13 October 2015

Shorelark





 I decided to put  a post on the Shorelark found at Blyth harbour yesterday by Peter Fletcher these used to be annual in small numbers but this is the first one I've seen for a few years , so it was worth spending lots of time with it ,letting it settle into a routine ,it gave best views when it landed in the compound giving us the opportunity to watch it slowly feed among the very small plants. The only thing that spooked it was any noisy vehicle that past ,when it would fly sometimes onto the beach , at one point posing on a log for a couple of minutes thus allowing me to use the SX5O  as we stood behind the wall , it also sang from here a short sweet trilling sub song








 Showing the small horns












Thursday 8 October 2015

St Mary's Wildflowers

A very pleasant couple of hours at St Mary's Island this afternoon still a few Goldcrests  in the top end  and two wWillow/Chiffs  in the Willows with a Great Spotted Woodpecker , Stonechat , with a couple of Skeins of Pinkfeet heading South , but is was the Butterflies that where in dominance , I loosely counted 42 Speckled Wood , 10 Red Admiral , 6 Small Torts  2 Painted Ladies , and over 100+ Silver Y modtly on the flowers planted along the roadside not counting the hundreds of Bees and other insects . No sign of any Hawkers but plenty of Common Darter scattered all over 


Common Darters 


 When this sign was put up I doubt there was any Speckled Wood in the County




Silver Y

 Liked the sun on this one
 It was good enough to sit for several portraits
 60+ Pinkfeet head south in the clear sky
 Speckled Wood
 Golden Plover settle on the rocks as the tide recedes, with the Wildflowers in the foreground