With very little time available for bird watching coming up for a while I was pleased to be able to pay a late afternoon visit to Marshside and see what I could see. There were good sunny intervals and it was warm but with a lot of high cloud and a cool south easterly wind.
Lots of Azure Damselflies were on the wing when I arrived, they seemed to be everywhere I looked. Some Holly Blue Butterflies were flitting around. Marsh Frogs were very vocal. A smaller number of Blue-tailed were also on the wing. Insects, surprisingly, seemed few and far between and I wondered if it was too warm for them as normally I see more than I could find today. There were some fish near the surface in the dyke. I wonder if these were Rudd as they looked darker with the scales more yellow green than the silver of the fish that I saw at Chambers Wall. There was also a stripey fish that I think is a Perch. The water had a whitish film on it.
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| ? Rudd |
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| ? Rudd |
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| Perch |
I saw a Hairy Dragonfly fly down the dyke and it stopped a little further up and and appeared to be ovipositing before moving on. A couple of Large White Butterflies flew past. A flash of blue and orange heralded a passing Kingfisher. They are such beautiful birds. I saw my first Emperor Dragonfly of the year patrolling along a dyke. I tried for some flight photos but did very badly with them. By the time I had managed to get it in the frame and tried to focus it was disappearing out of the frame and definitely not in focus. Out of a lot of attempts I only got one that is almost there but still pretty bad. One of the attempts missed the dragonfly and it is disappearing out of the frame but it did pick up a shoal of little fish in the shallows on the opposite side which I only saw when looking back over the photos.
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| male Emperor Dragonfly |
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| Shoal of fish and Emperor Dragonfly |
A Marsh Frog was resting in the water and now and then I came across a Red-eyed Damselfly resting on some duck weed in the dyke.
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| Marsh Frog |
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| Red-eyed Damselfly |
It was proving to be pretty quiet, in general but it was good to be out. The cloud cover was continuing to build and I could feel the drop in temperature. Pairs of Azure Damselflies were busy in the dyke with the females ovipositing. I saw the Emperor Dragonfly go down ahead of me and looked for it as I approached and was pleased to see it was still resting in amongst the vegetation giving a chance to try for some photos.
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| Azure Damsleflies |
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| male Emperor Dragonfly |
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| male Emperor Dragonfly |
A pair of young Moorhen were in the dyke and I caught sight of the female Mallard but she only appeared to have 4 youngster now. I just hope that they can get on well now they are bigger. The predation rate for young Mallard seems to be very high but hopefully reduces the bigger they get.
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| young Moorhen |
While watching the young Moorhen I saw a damselfly flutter past and a male Banded Demoiselle landed briefly before carrying on. I only managed to grab a quick shot before it flew on but I was pleased to be able to get that. They are such beautiful damselflies and this one was my first for the year.
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| Banded Demoiselle |
I was surprised, but very pleased, when a little further on I heard the unmistakable sound of a 'reeling' Grasshopper Warbler. I could not manage to see the bird as the area it was singing from was obscured by bushes but I tried to record it using the voice recorder I always carry. It was a little distant for the recorder but it did pick it up, even if it is not the best of recordings. As I can't transfer audio files to the blog I did the same as I did for the Nightingale and recorded from the voice recorder to the camera as I can import video. As before, the screen is black as I leave the lens hood on when recording the voice recorder. It has not come out great but I am pleased to have it and makes a good memory of the day. It certainly made my day hearing the Grasshopper Warbler. Hopefully, it is stays around, I may get a chance to see it at some point.
Very well chuffed with the Grasshopper Warbler but with walking becoming more problematic I headed for a spot where I could sit and watch the Swallows hawking for insects while trying for some flight photos of them. A Marsh Harrier flew past along a back field and 2 Common Buzzard were in the air together. A Swallow settled on the telegraph wires and looked stunning in the sunshine.
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| Swallow |
I enjoyed sitting and watching the Swallows. I was surrounded by the song of birds and a Small Heath Butterfly fluttered back and fore. I did not have much success with the in flight photos but did end up with a couple that, although they are heavily cropped, they remind me of the afternoon nicely.
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| Swallow |
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| Swallow |
On the way home I saw a gull feeding on what looks like part of a Rabbit. It appeared to have darker grey scapulars and plainer coverts and tertials than I have seen before on Herring Gull and I did wonder about Yellow-legged Gull but I think that it is a Herring Gull. It had a pale eye and appeared to have a pale base to the lower mandible. And though the tertials appear plain, on looking through the photos there is one that shows one is notched. Presumably the others appear plain through wear. I am having trouble aging it and though I have looked through photos on the internet I am still not sure. What I do know is that it is a beautiful bird and one that, by studying it, will help me to get better at immature gull identification as these are a definite weak point for me. The good thing is that I can only get better at them. It made an interesting end to the visit.
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| Herring Gull |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Herring Gull |
Birds seen this visit include: 3 Whitethroat, 6 Blackcap, Chaffinches, 2 Green Woodpecker, 4 Blackbird, 2 Wren, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Goldfinches, 3 Common Buzzard, 5 Swallow, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Ring-necked Parakeet, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Robin, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Pheasant, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Mistle Thrush, 4 Reed Warbler, 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 2 Collared Doves, Wood Pigeons, 1 Marsh Harrier, Herring Gulls
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