Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire.September 2008.

Sunday the 7th started good with a pair of honey buzzards gliding over my house, and then news of a pair of juv spoonbill came through so i decided to spend a few hours up at grafham the next morning to see if they were still present.
On arrival at the lagoons they were still there albeit at the far end and asleep for the majority of the time. Eventually they began to get more active and showed well from the hide.
A little egret ventured close to and gave good views whilst feeding. But by now the spoonbills were feeding well and were more than happy to show infront of us. When they caught sight of someone though they were quite wary and flew off to the rear of the lagoon, but soon resumed the same feeding circuit.
It was nice to see the spoonbills closer up this time compared to the group at cley not so long ago.

Bedfordshire, September 8th 2008

My first time out since the end of July. I was only able to keep local so headed off to Willington first, with not much to report there i was about to head off when news of a wryneck at sharpenhoe clappers came through. So i was off, and not visiting there before i parked on the road below the summit. Bloody hell was it a steep climb, i was well and truly hanging out after lugging my gear up there. Only to be told there is parking nearer the top, ill remember next time. Mind you if i hadnt approached from that direction i wouldnt have connected with a whinchat which posed for a couple of shots. On getting to the spot where the wryneck was, it was immediately pointed out to me atop a post but it didnt stay there long as a couple of walkers flushed it into the dense bushes. I only caught another glimpse as it flew from one area to another, a real elusive bird indeed,well done Andy for getting a shot. Still i was back out and about again.....hoorah

Moths

Poplar Hawkmoth

Here's a selection of images taken during august, thank god for moths or i would not of had anything to photograph. These are taken with a new macro lens i got recently, enabling me to get in nice and close.
Red Underwing
Svenssons Copper Underwing
Straw Underwing
Canary-shouldered Thorn

Javea Spain.August 2008.

During august birding and photography had to take a back seat, the reason being relocating sarahs mother back to england from spain. The first half was sorting and furnishing a place over here and then going over to spain to sort out the move and financial/paperwork stuff. I was only able to take a small pair of bins and so every morning before we got started again i would bird from the garden. I had some good birds though with a light phase Booted eagle top of the list which circled over the villa and a backup cast of: a group of 20+ Bee-eaters, Pallid swift with 1+ Alpine swift in the group, Spotted flycatcher, Sardinian warbler. As of writing im still as yet to get out but hopefully that will change soon.

Snettisham,Norfolk.July 2008.

I set off early to get to Snettisham at first light predominately for the waders, hoping the water would not be too far out. On arrival it was fairy close in but not as near as id hoped. I set about getting a good position and waited for the sun to hit the mud flats where the birds were.

It was a spectacular sight and one i never tire of watching, but capturing an image of how you see it is another matter. Where the light was still low and having a slower shutter speed created a blurred effect which did good to show it as a mass of wings and bodies mixing as one. Virtually all knot with other species thrown in, once they start to take flight it must be hard not to react with them, although a few godwits couldn't be bothered.

After the first few shots were bagged i carried on trying to get this effect of a mass as they took off, and it only became more intense when the low sun warmed up their colours, fantastic to watch and no matter how far away they were, when they grouped up i still stopped to watch.

Once the water line had gotten out of sight i decided to just sit it out and take images of whatever came past me, being partially obscured the birds did not notice me most of the time. This held true for a marsh harrier which flew overhead being mobbed by terns and gulls. It was so sudden and near i had to wait for it to get a bit more distant as the lens would not focus down that close.


One bird that did notice me was a spotted redshank, it seemed so inquisitive with my presence it would land close enough to start with and then proceed to walk even closer.It was not bothered by me snapping away and graciously posed for a while.

Keeping still and waiting for the little egrets to come my way took some time but one eventually came close.They are so wary and are off straight away once they've seen you.This one bird was so intent on feeding it had not noticed me. And it gave some great views before it came within stones throw and then once spying me was gone in a flash.

Fen Drayton,Cambs.July 2008.

Due to the new bus route construction going through the spot where i wanted to try for some images of warblers, i had to be content with a nice walk round instead. Myself and sarah followed the river ouse and did a spot of dragonfly watching.
We saw a couple of spanking male ruddy darters, really bright red in colour. There were a few pairs of banded demoiselle present with quite a few males flying up and down the river.

On one patch of vegetation i found a large group of crickets sat up on the leaves, they turned out to be dark bush crickets with male and females present. The one pictured here is a female.

There were quite a few larger dragonflies about with brown hawker and emperors and black tailed skimmer, but the one i tried to get an image of more so was a male scarce chaser. Because of it flying up and down the same territory and vanishing at times, it was awkward to tell if it was just one or two present. You can see the dark scraping marks halfway along the abdomen caused during mating by the female clasping on.

July 2008.

A very obliging Ruddy Darter in my garden gave me the chance for some close up images once i sussed out its favoured perches, it was just a case of waiting.


All images of Ruddy Darter.