Shorties

A brief seawatch from St Mary's Island this am resulted in only a Black throated Diver on the sea and a Merganser north , with some Purple sandpipers in the foreground . Walking back near the willows the Short Eared Owls where out and about  first one then another and briefly a third , hunting mainly over the wetland putting up Snipe first 6 then up to 20 , then ranging further  afield giving some cracking views  I rattled off numerous shots with varying results  so I have just put in lots for this post .

Late Tern

Having seen the Long Billed Dowitcher at Cresswell the bird distant and the hide full , I was very interested in the report of Black Tern at Druridge Pools , the bird soon appeared doing a circuit around the pond ,passing the hide into the wind  it did not make it any easier to get shots as they have such a buoyant   flight . Not seen such a late bird hence the interest from me and others to see this bird .

 Even the long range of the SX50 could not pull in  a decent image of the LBD

 It could get the more obliging Snipe though

Nearly the last of the Dragonflies

Last Month saw some nice sunny days so I tried to find some Dragonflies ,plenty of Common Darters still around some coupled and ovipositing , also saw a couple of Large Hawkers either Common or Migrant  I'm still at that stage where I need to see them perched or get a reasonable flight shot to ID them , but these where just darting about  and then gone . Funghi starting to come through another subject i like to look at but unless they have a common name most remain a mystery but you can still enjoy them .

 Took this Caterpillar out of a pond on the end of a stick , not sure what it is

 This caught my eye it would make a great macro subject

 This is pristine must have just come through

 Common Darter  this one seems to have clasped a male

 M & F Common Darters clasped in a wheel

 This Lichen on a small stone giving a nice pattern reminding me of ancient Northumberland rock carvings could there be a link .

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

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