Toft Wagtail, Insects and Lichens

A  cold wind but warm sunshine brought out a few insects and helped photographing the lichens in the churchyard - an ongoing project. I include 4 that are distinctive enough to identify with good certainty. The Pied Wagtail was busy displaying on the Village Hall roof.

Toft Garden Wildlife

While pruning the conifer hedge, I found this old Goldcrest nest - a beautiful small cup completely lined with feathers and one very small (old) egg. The other images show what flowers are out at the moment, a couple of birds already setting up territories and the only insect (other than honey bees) active (Scathophaga stercoraria)

Another Session with the Cormorants

The wind was a lot lighter yesterday so gave better opportunities to photograph the Cormorants in flight and appreciate their breeding plumage.

Cormorants Nesting at Paxton Pits

Nesting season for the Cormorants is in full swing at Paxton.

Toft Birds

I took Phil's Olympus camera for a walk today as my Fuji is quite hard to manage with a very stiff painful forefinger. Quite a bit of territorial behaviour getting going among the birds yet the trees by the old railway had a flock of more than 150 Redwings still here before departing north. Although it was quite cold there were obviously large numbers of gnats in the air by the stream.

Toft Churchyard Insects

Really warm day on Monday (20th) brought out quite a few insects including two hoverfly species and an Early Bumblebee along with Honey bees and pollen beetles. Both hoverflies are migrant species so wonder if brought in by the warm southerlies.