Quite a bit to fit in this post as my mate from back home came to visit for some birding and I had a fair few pics to sort through..
Pics are from different locations over the last few days:
Keyhaven/hurst:
Here we were a little disapointed at first because after walking to hurst castle we found NO glanville fritillaries :-(, but enjoyed lovely views of a fishing sarnie tern. The bird had fishing line caught on it, but seem unaffected as it was very successful:
After the walk back we were just getting into the car when I noticed an oystercatcher flying towards us and grabbed the cam to attempt a flight shot. But my attention turn to something else, a great surprise in the form of a brent goose!?! What is it doing here still? It was very tatty:
Common and little terns were feeding down near the pools which provided some great photo opportunities, rubbish pic of the little tern, but I am very pleased with the common tern:
And may favourite crop:
Whilst walking along the sea wall we were harrassed by a lapwing and eventually realised why, she had some very developed chicks feeding in the mud near the path...
Chick:
Mumsey:
On the insect front there were pleanty of odonata but the wind made it tricky to photograph them, I got a record of a black tailed skimmer though:
White throat finding food for young:
The New Forest (various sites)
Silver studded blue are very obvious on the heath at the mo, they are stunning:
Possible white legged damselfy?:
Male Keeled Skimmer:
Whilst at bishops dyke we heard a massive 'splosh' and went to investigate. What we found was this poor raft spider walking sheepishly across the water having obviously been an attempted meal for something!
What was it that caused the splash, well, a bloody monsterous marsh frog. After seeing it I feared for my own life - it was MASSIVE!!
Here is a slightly smaller, greener one:
We also saw common lizard here:
More New Forest antics:
When walking across the heath (on paths) we disturbed a male goshawk from the bracken, lovely views. When walking back later a crow flew up from the same spot so we went to investigate and found this:
Don't worry mum, I washed my hands after... actually, I didn't but it was ok!
Also we enjoyed fantastic views of a singing male wood warbler, it just never used the perfect perches in the light but I got a few shots I'm happy with. A return visit is needed:
A soaring buzzard seemed to enjoy flaunting the worm it had heroically tackled :-\ :
Botley Wood
Saw some stunning beautiful demoiselle:
Male:
Female:
One adder and many slow worms here too:
There weren't many butterflies about, other than large skipper, but lots of 5 and 6 spot burnet moths:
Large skipper:
Been a good few days,
Dan
at least 2 garden warblers
There were pleanty of butterflies about including..
Marbled White:
Dragonflies:
There was the smallest jack pike I have ever seen as well, about 4 inches long:
Lots of large carp, stocked of course:
From an area in herts I was amazed by the number of corvids at one spot (pics only showing some of the flock):
All the best,
