A Few More Birds from Slimbridge

A few more birds seen on our RPS trip to Slimbridge. The light was very dull so not a great deal of 'life' in the photos but great to see up to 10 Cranes all together down on the banks of the Severn and flying. They have had a very successful year breeding-wise here. Lots of passage migrants on South Lake including Black-tailed Godwits and also parties of Avocets and Lapwings stirring up the mud. The ducks are in eclipse still but recognisable Shovellers looking as grumpy as usual and Teal.

 

Arnos Grove Cemetery

 There was only time for a very quick walk around Arnos Grove Cemetery after the RPS  Assessments at Bristol yesterday but the weather was kind and the storm clouds disappeared to give clear sunshine. Infrared monochrome images. At some point Andrew came into view giving scale to the impressive buildings.

Hobby versus Sparrowhawk

 When I took these images at Slimbridge yesterday, I thought it was the two hobbies that were hunting from their perch in the hedgerow but the camera reveals it was a Sparrowhawk chasing one of the Hobbies! There were two Hobbies present most of the day perching together in the trees or in the ploughed field but also gave several aerial displays catching and eating dragonflies (rough processing on laptop)

Paxton September Butterfly and Dragonfly Transect

For the first time this year, we had warm sunny weather (in the morning anyway) for our monthly Butterfly and Dragonfly Transcept. The counts were dominated by Common Darters and Willow Emerald Damselflies with Small Copper, Small White, Commas and Speckled Wood Butterflies the most frequent butterflies. We also had quite a few Migrant Hawkers and one Southern (on Blackberry).

Insect Portraits

The warm sun yesterday afternoon brought out quite a few insects in the garden posing on leaves ready for a portrait. The Snail-killing fly Coremacera marginata only sips nectar or dew but the larvae prey on land snails. The first image is a focus stack (15 images Zerene stacker) the second image is a single shot, The Soldier Fly and Hawthorn Shieldbug are focus stacks, the rest are single-shot portraits. The last image is a new one for my list I think, Vulgichneumon saturatoris, with the white spot on the tip of the abdomen