Monday, August 16, 2004

Tanholt take 2

After a week out of the area during which two Pied Flycatchers turned up in the area, including one in the garden of the Toadsnatcher, I gave my favoured patch another look. However, I could barely find any birds at all let alone rarities so again the insects took centre stage.

Migrant and Brown Hawker dragonflies were abundant but rarely rested enough for the camera.

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)


Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)



The hoverflies were mainly using the abundant Prickly Sow-thistle (Sonchus asper).

Eristalis nemorum. Male.


Sphaerophoria sp., probably scripta. Female.



Eristalis tenax. Male.


Syrphus sp., probably ribessii. Male.

Nikon CP995.

Many thanks to Steven Falk for his help with identification of the hoverflies from these photographs.

3 comments:

Vics said...

Hello Brian,

I was wondering if you might be able to help us identify the birds in this picture:

http://vicki.ashtonfam.org/pix/forviewing/2birds.jpg

As a bit of background, it is a close up of an Asian table placemat. Some have tried to identify them as a type of robin, but to me the beak looks all wrong for that. Any ideas?

Brian said...

Those are male Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula):
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/b/bullfinch/index.asp

Vics said...

Thank you, we have wondered what they were for a long time. I would also like to thank you for your blog. Your pictures are beautiful. My whole family looks forward to seeing new posts. :)