House Martin Construction Company

A second visit to the House Martin colony showed them to be continuing to build, in preparation to laying.

the next few days should prove interesting as the heat dries up the available source's of building materiel's.

With the reduction in mud the visits grew in frequency with both adults gathering together.

Swallow in the same location are busy feeding large and demanding young I'm sure they will fledge in the next few days. Presenting even more opportunities.

Paul

Lazy Hazy Days of Summer.

Some good weather always get me out and about with the camera equipment, on the look out for the different, obscure or just darned cute! and with the breeding season going on all around us at the moment there are loads of the cute young flitting about. It is traditionally a quite time for the county birds so as with a lot of other things, it was change tac and look to see what else was out there.

Buzz off!

A Forget-me-not,, and midge for breakfast!

A late arriving group of House Martins set to repairing the nests from last year.

The Feather louse certainly has its desires! " keep your wings up and dont move"

I used to love mud pie as a youngun!

A second visit to the House Martins is in order

Minor update from today.

A couple from the day/ morning out.

Quaking Grass (Briza Minor)

A swarm of Honey Bees at VP today 12th June 2010

This swarm was estimated at 10,000 thats a lot of Honey mummy!!

the swarming is activated by an oligarchy of bees that can emit a high pitched whistle

at which point the Queen and followers leave in search of a new nest, which will or might have been found by drones that have gone out before.

Paul

A little catch up!! and a mental dash!

A promise of a good day on the coast and being overdue for my annual Welsh expedition,  I was of at Sparrows fart, with young! Dawn riding shotgun, the start was promising with a good sunrise, followed, as we neared Wales the start of some rain, not the sort of weather wanted really. The first stop was the Little Ten colony at Gronant, Boy was that wind whipping off of the Irish Sea, I am sure I saw a couple of Irishmen go whizzing past!!

The Terns are doing well and guarded from predators from 04:00 til 22:00 daily during the season, their battles with the wind certainly earned my respect for these diminutive birds. The camera on tripod was all over the place in the wind so it was Handholding the 600mm, what fun! and no image stabilisation!!

We gave this a go for about an hour before heading of for the relative calm of Cemlyn bay, calm! it was as ever bedlam with Sandwich, Common and Artic all trying to out scream the other! the tide was still in so a few were fishing in the bay, a few Dunlin were on the lagoon along with Red-breasted Merganser and reportedly a Med Gull, which was not found.

The Sand eels seemed at this point in time to be of reasonable size and we saw no Pipe fish being brought in so perhaps the young will do well this year. A sharp move to Holyhead got us the Bird most wanted for the day, Black Guillemot and a rather confiding bird it was to.

And he was gone, And after doing the Stack to knock of the Puffins and Razorbills we were on the long trek back to Shropshire.

The local Linnets were going at the old Wharf buildings again, sure they are trying to eat them down!

And then one of these Terned!! up, arriving in telford after a long drive from Devon a text  from Andy "Megga at! saw the baggage and daughter dumped in the hall and I was of to the Dire Lake! normally it is  a bird to twitch, but on the doorstep WOW!. A nice county and believe it or not UK tick, only managed a few record shots in the fading light.!!!

A little underwing

Thanks for looking.

Paul

A Whixall Moss foray!

With the day set to be bloody hot and it being a Saturday and all, it goes without saying that ,
"Mad Dogs and English men" did go out in the midday sun!! It was actually 05:00 that the
journey to Mordor began.

The first port of call was the Gropper location, not found! So onwards for the Adders!! not found!

There was however consolation prizes to be had, in the shape of Small Copper, White-faced Darter,
 and a splendid female Raft Spider, along with Brimstone, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoise shell,
 Peacock, Green Hairstreak to name a few. It was uncannily quiet on the moss and
 apart from the three or four Cuckoos, Curlews and Hobby the only bird off
note was a superb flyover of the Marsh Harrier. Stooped upon by a Common Buzzard .

A nice bonus bird for the day. (record shot)

Green Hairstreak

Green Hairstreak

Female Raft Spider

Male White-faced Darter

Large Red Damselfly

With the temperature approaching that of Death Valley! the Dragons and Butterflies were very active and getting close was proving to be a real nightmare, a lunch of very nice cheese rolls washed down with a cool beer rounded off, what turned out to be a very good day after all.

there a couple of images to be added so pop back.

Cheers

Paul