Norfolk Tour - Welney WWT Reserve

Welcome to Norfolk to Jan and David from one cute and very small jumping spider and a rather muddy swallow. This was the first stop on our tour round some of Norfolk's bird reserves. Beautiful warm sunny day with enough birds to keep us occupied all day - Reed Warblers, Reed Bunting, Black-Tailed Godwit, Marsh Harrier, Lapwing, Peregrine and Heron (with  lots of nesting Avocets)

Life in a Buttercup Meadow

We were surveying the wildlife in the two large meadows at Paxton Pits yesterday. Among the identification photos that I took for the survey were these more pictorial images. I particularly liked how the Small Copper fitted into a buttercup and the delicate Cranefly.

 

Egret Versus Worm

It had rained the days before we arrived so water covered some previously dry areas. The Egrets were spending a lot of time probing in the mud and extracting worms. However, the worms did not succumb easily and wrapped themselves around the closed beak forcing the Egret to drop the worm and the quickly retrieve it from the water, toss it and swallow very rapidly.

Highlights from the Final Day

Our last full day in Majorca was a hot one so we spent a lot of time in the shade of the hides. A few highlights - Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Purple Gallinule eating, Red Crested Pochard, Eleanora's Falcon, Marbled duck, Avocet fighting as always, Black Winged Stilt, Glossy Ibis preening and Little Ringed Plovers.

Butterflies and Dragonflies Majorca

Lovely to see a Swallowtail Butterfly (egg laying as well as nectaring) at the S'Albufera reserve yesterday, along with a Long-Tailed Blue. Dragonflies were more numerous than previously with Common Darter and Black-Tailed Skimmer photographed and ?Emperor hawking the reeds. Speckled Bush Cricket put on a good display while the bees that inhabit strange clay nests (?provided or built by them) all round the visitor centre.

 

 

Son Bosc - Orchids and Birds

We had a day out yesterday with Pere Tomàs of Mallorca Natural Tours - a company to be fully recommended to anyone visiting the island and wanting to see and hear about its birds, flowers and ecology. Thanks Pere. We started our day at Son Bosc as the afternoon was scheduled to be 28 degrees or more in the afternoon. Son Bosc has 9 species of orchids (including Anacamptis robusta - an endemic Marsh Orchid, images 3 and 4).  The bright conditions made flower photography difficult but did encourage some higher contrast images including the spider on Bee Orchid and the Holly Blue. Birds were distant but several new sightings for the list including Fan -Tailed Warbler (now called Zitting Cisticola) and Bee Eaters (lots flying around but only distant perched birds)