Hidden Gems

 Having been laid up for the past couple of weeks due to turning my ankle on a walk I have been left wondering what to do with my time. It was doubly frustrating too as I was due to do another trip for Naturetrek to Fuerteventura which I had to pull out of.

In the end I just did a lot of reading at home and also sorting through, and re-editing a few of my older photos. It's surprising how ones taste changes over time and some of the photos I re-edited and cropped to hopefully end up with slightly improved results.

Here's a very small selection of some of these re-worked photos.

Male Brimstone on Pussy Willow.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary on Bluebell.

Wood White on Meadow Vetchling.

Silver-spotted Skipper on Small Scabious.

Female Bearded Tit.

Male Bearded Tit.

If things don't improve soon with the foot there may be more of these to follow!!

Turnstone.

 Another attempt at seeing the local Purple Sandpipers were unsuccessful today, but once again the session was saved by the Turnstones.

This time I also managed to photograph them on the beach as well as the usual pier shots.

Unfortunately, it was a really dull day so the photos do lack a bit of sparkle, although it has helped to keep the detail in the very white feathers.

On The Beach.

On The Pier.

Two Turnstone having a conversation about that strange looking bloke pointing a camera at them!!

Hazel Flowers.

 For years I have, along with many others, enjoyed seeing the hedgerows come alive through January and February with the beautiful delicate male catkins of the Hazel tree. Until now it had never occurred to me to have a closer look as near those male catkins will be the tiny red flowers of the female. These then pick up the male pollen as it is blown on the breeze. Having seen these for the first time on Wednesday, I am now seeing them everywhere.

It is never too late to discover and see the delights of the natural World.

Male Hazel Catkins.

Female Hazel Flower.

Male and Female together.

Barn Owl Watching.

 Over the past couple of months I've had several casual sightings of Barn Owls, but each time I've either ended up with no photos or more often photos that qualify as the worst photos ever taken of the species. 

As this is a species that I particularly like I was keen to try just a little bit harder, and after visiting a site with some of these beauties and watching the area where they appeared to hunt on a regular basis I had a couple of sessions where I tried to get in a position where I hoped to stay hidden from the owls.

On a particularly lovely late afternoon I had only been in position for a few minutes when the first Barn Owl flew around the area just in front of me and my first shot was taken.

Barn Owl hunting.

The owl then flew around the area for a couple of minutes more and then out of view. It was only a short while though before I spotted it flying straight towards me again and I was just getting it in the viewfinder when it landed in a bush straight in front of me. Although it could hear the shutter going off it fortunately didn't fly off and after a minute it turned away from me, although it was still looking around obviously hoping to see or hear a vole. Once again when the shutter went off it looked straight at me but clearly couldn't see me.

The owl eventually flew off but continued to hunt in the area. After one unsuccessful dive it landed on a fence post very close to me, although there was a large bush between us so I couldn't get any photos of it in this position, although I could get pretty good views of it through the binoculars. I had the camera ready in case it flew out sideways, but in the end it flew a few posts further away. The bush was still in the way but now with the owl further away I tried moving a little so I could get a clear view. I very carefully moved a little every time the owl looked away and I soon had a clear view of it. 

An unsuccessful Dive.

I enjoyed watching the Barn Owl as it surveyed the area in front of it, it wasn't resting though as it then heard a vole in the field in front of it and it flew just a few feet from the post and dived down catching a vole which it brought back to the post before swallowing it whole.

Barn Owl with Field Vole.

For another couple of minutes the owl sat on the post feeling pleased with himself and enjoying the late afternoon sunshine.

A Contented Owl.

Whilst all this was happening I spotted a distant Barn Owl that wasn't particularly happy that a Fox was using the same area as him to hunt.

Barn Owl and Fox.

The evening finished off with some excellent distant views of hunting Short-eared Owls. By now it was starting to get dark so the long walk back to the car, however, there were several owls of both species seen hunting across the whole area for the entire walk back.

The following evening I decided to try again. However, this evening was a lot less successful with the owls coming out almost an hour later, and very little activity in my chosen area and only one photo was taken of a Barn Owl flying towards me.

Whoopers.

 With January already nearly over I have already seen 3 different butterfly species. This includes my earliest ever Brimstone that I saw at High and Over on an icy day of January 11th along with a Peacock, both in a sunny sheltered area. This followed on from the Red Admiral that I saw in the same area on the 8th.

I also had a great trip with David to Dungeness on the 18th. Unfortunately, the birds were rather quiet and our hoped for Bearded Tits were nowhere to be found. The highlight was 5 Whooper Swans showing rather nicely on the ARC pit. A great finish to the day with Jennie cooking another fabulous meal.

Whooper Swans on ARC.

I've also had several great days with Lisa including seeing several Hawfinch and a Goshawk at West Dean and on another day we saw the sunrise at Burton Mill Pond and the sunset at The Burgh with sightings of Short-eared Owls and Barn Owls and a ring-tailed Hen Harrier for good measure in between.

Yesterday Pete and I went for our annual trip to see the Purple Sandpipers on the pier. I'm not sure if it is a bad year for them this year but for the first time I can remember we didn't see any at all. We were entertained though by several Ruddy Turnstones that were hanging around the fishermen hoping for little titbits. Mostly they were running around but one did stop briefly to give me the chance of a few shots. The light was really poor so no flight shots were possible.

Ruddy Turnstone.

2023 Butterfly Season Starts.

 January 1st brought my first encounter with lepidoptera for the year in the form of a couple of Wall Brown larvae that I managed to show Lisa. as well as my first moth of the year, the scarce micro moth Agonopterix pallorella. On a walk around the patch we also had a couple of Brown Hares and towards the end some epic views of a pair of Firecrest.

Agonopterix pallorella. (picture from 2017).

On January 5th I finished a long walk with a casual search for Wall Brown larvae and was surprised to find 15 in just over 30 minutes. This included one that was approaching half grown. Certainly the largest I have found this early in the year.

The following day I started my conservation clearing work on the Lace Border site and in full sunshine on arrival I had a macro moth flying around that I think was a Silver Y. Unfortunately, it failed to settle in view. The weather soon went downhill and as I left the site a little over 2 hours later the rain had started again.

My first adult butterfly then turned up unexpectedly on the 8th when another session clearing scrub I had a Red Admiral flying nearby. It was very windy and the butterfly soon got caught up in a strong gust and that was the last I saw of it. After finishing the clearance work I looked for the large Wall Brown larva from the 5th and fortunately I found it very quickly. It showed very well and a few photos were taken, although the wind made it quite difficult.

Wall Brown larva.

Wind Direction, Westerly!!

Argiope trifasciata.

 My trip to Fuerteventura back in November brought a very good find in the form of several Argiope trifasciata, a close relative of our Wasp Spider.

Looking on the internet it appears the first sighting of this spider on the island was only back in 2016, so it is a recent colonist by the look of it and therefore is probably still quite a scarce species.

I first spotted the quite large spider from some distance and after getting closer a group of 5 were seen over quite a small area. It certainly is a smart creature with its silvery, but was not the easiest one to photograph despite it sitting very still. It was one of my favourite finds during the trip and I was amazed that I had forgotten to post these photos before!!

Argiope trifasciata (Banded Garden Spider).

I also seemed to have missed posting any pictures of the Sahara Bluetail damselflies. I did see many of these on both of my trips over the past couple of years, but this damselfly is a very smart insect and worthy of posting my best shot from this latest trip.

We did also see a couple of Vagrant Emperor Dragonflies, but the only one that sat and posed was when my camera was not with me. However, we did see plenty Red-veined Darters and a few Scarlet Darter, or Broad Scarlet as its called over in Fuerteventura.

Sahara Bluetail.

Red-veined Darter.

Scarlet Darter.