Grayling, a rare butterfly in Gateshead
Grayling, only recorded at 2 sites in Gateshead
Male Banded demoiselle, a bit distant for good shots
Female Banded Demoiselle
Nearly a cracking shot :0
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Graylings are out
Graylings x 5 are out at Birtley reed beds site, Banded demoiselles x 20+ at Hagghill on river derwent.
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Good little morning
Little Egret at Shibdon pond today (cheers for call George), it showed well for all in front of hide this morning, next was dragon hunting at Kibblesworth bwp where me and the dragonhunter had best ever views of Emperor male and female :) 3 common hawkers, 2 male black tailed skimmers showed aswell as many four spots and common darters, here is a selection of todays shots.
Cracking views of this Little egret
fishing in front of the hide
the reflection was great also
a quick flight around the pond and it was back perching on the island
great bird in Gateshead
female Emperor eating a four spot chaser :0 what an amazing view
we could hear it munching away
it ate the whole four spot in mins :0
cracking views of this male Emperor
what a dragonfly and a great morning out :)
how close do you want to get to that ''Emperor'' Dragonhunter ;) lol
Thursday, 11 July 2013
BBC
2 Male BBChasers at far pasture today and 3 Four spotted chasers, had a look at pow hill for Golden ringed with the Dragonhunter but no sign of any :( our trip was cut short as i had to go and meet a plumber, bloody plumber :) lol. we did have 2 red squirrels, spotted flycatcher and 3 possible common hawkers which got away.
Here's one i made earlier :)
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Kibblesworth brick works pools
Had an hour at the brick works pools today in the hope of ticking off Black-tailed skimmer and Emperor, it wasn't long before i had both in view :) on the main pond i had:-
Black-tailed skimmer x 3 - mmf
Emperor dragonfly x 1
Four spotted chasers 30 +
Common darter 30 +
Painted lady butterfly was a bonus which flew off before i got my camera out :(
Small skippers
Small heaths
Ringlets
Common blues
Meadow browns
Small whites
Black-tailed skimmer x 3 - mmf
Emperor dragonfly x 1
Four spotted chasers 30 +
Common darter 30 +
Painted lady butterfly was a bonus which flew off before i got my camera out :(
Small skippers
Small heaths
Ringlets
Common blues
Meadow browns
Small whites
Monday, 8 July 2013
Speyside Trip
Picked the dragonhunter up at 4:30am :0 and off we went to speyside for a couple of days birding and dragon hunting :)
Day 1
Started off at the Findhorn Valley where we had a Peregrine within 5 mins of getting out of car which was a promising start, a possible Golden ringed dragonfly which got away not to be seen again, a spotted flycatcher was seen on the drive out. Next was Anagach Woods where we were greeted by the calls of Crested tits which showed on and off, we also had female Common hawker here and a few Large red dams. Next was Loch Garten rspb, A pair off Ospreys showed well at the nest, also Crested tits showed well on the feeders. We checked the board walk pool near the entrance to the rspb center and we had a few Northern damselflys which was a lifer for the both of us :) next we headed into Aviemore for some bait (haggis & chips) mmm, the Dragonhunter said it looked like a battered brain :) lol, he is a veggie though :). We decided to have a look at the base of Cairngorm so we could check out our route up the mountain in the morning, we pitched our tent up on a field in Glenmore and cracked open a couple of cans of the black stuff and and sunk into our seats after a hard days birding and dragon hunting, a bit of a quiet day with only 1 year tick and 1 damslefly life tick.
Day 2
Got up at 5am :0 packed away the tent and had a wash with a bottle of water and some wet wipes :) lol before setting of for the climb ahead of us :0 whilst in the Cairngorm car park we had a female Ring ouzel fly past with a beak full of something to feed her 2 chicks which we saw as we left the car park for the climb, we also had 3 Hooded crows lower down the mountain which was a year tick :) it was a hard slog up taking 1:45 mins :( which included a few rest breaks. The Dragonhunter had a mountain hare which ran into some rocks not showing again :( once on the top we followed the path which takes you to the next mountain where the Dotterels usually are? on the way we ticked a female Ptarmigan with 1 chick, it didn't take much longer before we had a male Dotterel with 3 chicks which showed well :) then we could hear the song of a Snow bunting which we tracked down, we managed to get 5 Snow buntings. So with our targets ticked we decided to make our way back down the mountain where we enjoyed the cracking views of what we had just climbed up whilst enjoying a well deserved cup of coffee, which i managed to spill down the front of my shirt :( lol. With the sun out and temps of 20c we set of for some dragonfly hunting, Loch garten and Uath lochans were the places visited, where we enjoyed some cracking views of White faced darters and Northern emeralds which were both lifers for both of us :). we stopped of at a known Osprey nest site where 3 chicks and 2 adult birds were all in the nest :0 The dragonhunter also spotted a Golden eagle being mobbed by 3 buzzards on one of the mountains :) nice one, our target bird from yesterday in the findhorn valley :) with the time getting on it was soon time to end a cracking weekend and head home :( we stopped off at Berwick for a leg stretch and a bit of sea watching where a couple of Manx shearwaters were a bonus year tick, just a nice way to end the trip.
Birds added to year list
Crested tit
Hooded crow
Ptarmigan
Dotterel
Golden eagle
Manx shearwater
Dragons seen
White faced darter
Northern emerald
Northern damselfly
Day 1
Started off at the Findhorn Valley where we had a Peregrine within 5 mins of getting out of car which was a promising start, a possible Golden ringed dragonfly which got away not to be seen again, a spotted flycatcher was seen on the drive out. Next was Anagach Woods where we were greeted by the calls of Crested tits which showed on and off, we also had female Common hawker here and a few Large red dams. Next was Loch Garten rspb, A pair off Ospreys showed well at the nest, also Crested tits showed well on the feeders. We checked the board walk pool near the entrance to the rspb center and we had a few Northern damselflys which was a lifer for the both of us :) next we headed into Aviemore for some bait (haggis & chips) mmm, the Dragonhunter said it looked like a battered brain :) lol, he is a veggie though :). We decided to have a look at the base of Cairngorm so we could check out our route up the mountain in the morning, we pitched our tent up on a field in Glenmore and cracked open a couple of cans of the black stuff and and sunk into our seats after a hard days birding and dragon hunting, a bit of a quiet day with only 1 year tick and 1 damslefly life tick.
Day 2
Got up at 5am :0 packed away the tent and had a wash with a bottle of water and some wet wipes :) lol before setting of for the climb ahead of us :0 whilst in the Cairngorm car park we had a female Ring ouzel fly past with a beak full of something to feed her 2 chicks which we saw as we left the car park for the climb, we also had 3 Hooded crows lower down the mountain which was a year tick :) it was a hard slog up taking 1:45 mins :( which included a few rest breaks. The Dragonhunter had a mountain hare which ran into some rocks not showing again :( once on the top we followed the path which takes you to the next mountain where the Dotterels usually are? on the way we ticked a female Ptarmigan with 1 chick, it didn't take much longer before we had a male Dotterel with 3 chicks which showed well :) then we could hear the song of a Snow bunting which we tracked down, we managed to get 5 Snow buntings. So with our targets ticked we decided to make our way back down the mountain where we enjoyed the cracking views of what we had just climbed up whilst enjoying a well deserved cup of coffee, which i managed to spill down the front of my shirt :( lol. With the sun out and temps of 20c we set of for some dragonfly hunting, Loch garten and Uath lochans were the places visited, where we enjoyed some cracking views of White faced darters and Northern emeralds which were both lifers for both of us :). we stopped of at a known Osprey nest site where 3 chicks and 2 adult birds were all in the nest :0 The dragonhunter also spotted a Golden eagle being mobbed by 3 buzzards on one of the mountains :) nice one, our target bird from yesterday in the findhorn valley :) with the time getting on it was soon time to end a cracking weekend and head home :( we stopped off at Berwick for a leg stretch and a bit of sea watching where a couple of Manx shearwaters were a bonus year tick, just a nice way to end the trip.
Birds added to year list
Crested tit
Hooded crow
Ptarmigan
Dotterel
Golden eagle
Manx shearwater
Dragons seen
White faced darter
Northern emerald
Northern damselfly
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Dragonhunter the flycatcher spotter
The Dragonhunter finds another flycatcher in Gateshead :) this time a Spotted Flycatcher, which was new for the year in Gateshead, it was in the Gibside estate. nice one Dragonhunter :) Should be a good weekend for me and the Dragonhunter, as we are off to the cairngorms for a copuple off days(weather permitting) target birds and dragonflys are:
Golden Eagle
Crested Tit
Scottish Crossbill
Capercaillie
Dotterel
Ptarmigan
Hooded Crow
White Faced Darter
Northern Emerald
Northern Damselfly
Golden Eagle
Crested Tit
Scottish Crossbill
Capercaillie
Dotterel
Ptarmigan
Hooded Crow
White Faced Darter
Northern Emerald
Northern Damselfly
Spotted Flycatcher with damselfly
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Bridled Tern twitch
What a bird :) Bridled Tern on inner farne, set off at 4:15 this morning to catch the 6am boat which was full of excited birders :0 the warden already had the bird pinned down for us when the troops landed, it showed really well flying over our heads before flying over the island not to be seen again whilst we were on the island :( it came on the pager again, so there's a good chance more twitchers will get it today :0 here's some shots of a great bird.
Arctic tern on the farnes
Med gull at shibdon pond
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