Once in a lifetime

Well that's how it was billed anyway. In the end I felt the traverse of Venus was a little unedifying. Much as I reckon could be expected a small black dot passed very slowly across the sun's disk. Er... that's it! This is a snap of the event projected onto a piece of paper using an old telescope.

Urban Bee Orchids

Talk about getting a Bee in your bonnet. The Bee Orchid is not exactly a rare plant but it is great when you can see them in and around our urban spaces. Trouble is civic tidying often means these get mown at the height of their flowering season. This not only deprives us of the sight of the flowers but also means they are unable to set seed. In the case of the ones pictured here near Hampton on London Road, Peterborough a quick email to the local Wildlife Officer in the council means mowing of this verge is now delayed to allow the plants to complete their flowering. Round one to the orchids :)





Hopefully the same can be done for the 120 or so seen flowering at the Boongate parkway junction sliproad this year. All but about 6 were mown before I contacted anyone but hopefully they can be avoided next year. Look out for them.

Common Tern taking bread

This may be a first. We are all familiar with gulls and other birds taking bread but it was a big surprise to see a Common Tern swooping down to pick up bits of bread thrown into the water. It was quite agressive towards other birds trying to get the food. This was in the middle of Malthouse Broad in the Norfolk Broads.

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)

Nikon CP995.

Damsels on Broads

There were some excellent insects about at the north end of Somerton Dyke near Martham Broad including Swallowtail butterfly. Among the many damselflies were these little crackers. The first two are a male Variable Damselfly (Coenagrion pulchellum) and a superb female Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) of the form rufescens.



These next pics are two shots of the same female which I took to be a female Variable at the time but on closer inspection I think it must be a female Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella). Comments welcome.

Longhorn Beetle

Got a bit of a soft spot for these large beetles with the outrageous antennae. This one was on the banks of Candle Dyke on the Norfolk Broads and has unfortunately lost a large part of one of the its antennae. Oh yes and the species is Agapanthea villosoviridescens.

Otter Holt

While canoeing on a quiet stretch of river on the Norfolk Broads one evening we were lucky enough to come across an Otter swimming along in front of us. Our second Otter this year after one in Scotland. I didn't get any pictures of it but we did find a holt in a different area.


Nikon CP995.

Great Crested Grebe

Snapped from a boat while on holiday on the Norfolk Broads near Irstead.

Nikon CP995.

Courting Coot

I've never noticed this before. This pair performed this slow bowing dance many times. It is difficult to portray in a photograph but hopefully this gives an idea of what is going on.

Common Coot (Fulica atra)



Nikon CP995.

Froghopper and Beetle

This is a highly distinctive and striking froggy going by the name of Cercopis vulnerata. Found during a succesful daytime lepping trip to Old Sulehay Quarry where Dingy and Grizzled Skippers were showing well.


Thanks to the good folk on the British Insects YahooGroup forum for pointing me at the ID for this beetle: Oedemera lurida.

Teneral Four-spotted Chaser

This was a bit of luck. It was disturbed from dense undergrowth (otherwise known as the footpath from Stonebridge Corner to Prior's Fen) and being fairly recently emerged wasn't up to much flying making this shot possible.

Old Sulehay Leps

Another highly successful lunchtime outing to Old Sulehay Stonepit Quarry, where several Dungy and Grizzled Skippers and a Green Haristreak showed very well.

Daytime Tawny Owl

A quick check for Little Owls at a regular spot along the Billing Brook near Haddon I came across this chap. He didn't sit out in th open for long but managed a quick snap.

Tawny Owl (Strix aluco)

Nikon CP995

Empress?

We left the PBC trip to Old Sulehay early to pick up our lad from a friend's house and were presented with this huge moth. It was picked up injured from a path around the housing estates. This is a female and although it layed no eggs it survived for a few days.

Female Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia)

Nikon CP995

Old Sulehay flowers

A few flowers snapped during a very pleasant PBC trip to Old Sulehay. The pansy was the only example in Stonepit Quarry and is probably the first record for the site. The others were in the wood.

Toothwort is a curious plant. It is partly parasitic and partly insectivorous. It parasitises the roots of Hazel and other plants but also traps and digests insects in cavities formed by underground leaves.

Wild Pansy (Viola tricolor)


Arum Lilly (Zantedeschia Aethiopica)


Toothwort (Dentaria diphylla)

Nikon CP995

Hoopoe, Stibbington

Arriving to do my WeBS count at Stibbington in the morning, I flushed a Hoopoe from the entrance track. A year and ten days since the one I saw at Elton Furze! Unlike that one this stuck around so that a few local birders could get to see it. It remains a very rare species locally.

Locals confirmed it had been present for at least a day before but it wasn't seen again after the 25th.

Hoopoe (Upupa epops)

Digiscoped with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 20x eyepiece.

The Drinker

We encountered some excellent moths in Ardnamurchan but those pictures will have to wait. In the meantime here is a closup of the larva of The Drinker. These have a habit of drinking from droplets of water, which gives the moth its name.

Getting warmer, in fact 'Otter

Only seen a wild Otter once before and that was at Loch Arisaig not far from where we were staying on the Ardnamurchan peninsular. However we still considered ourselves very lucky when we came across these very fresh prints on a deserted beach at Bay Macneil near the lighthouse. We were even more surprised when we saw the animal running about in the rocks nearby.

Violet Ground Beetle

This stunning little fellow was found by Alex at Portuairk in Ardnamurchan on the Scottish west coast. It is Carabus problematicus, one of two British species of Violet Ground Beetle. The similar C. violaceus lacks the ridges on the elytra and is a common insect in gardens.

Green Tiger Beetle, Old Sulhay

These striking insects are common in the Stonepit Quarry area of Old Sulehay. The blue abdomen can catch the light well as it flies.

Green Tiger beetle Cicindela campestris

Nikon CP995.

Little Owl

Returning from the PBC trip to Southey Woods this chap was sat right next to the road at Top Lodge Farm, Upton.

Little Owl (Athene noctua)

Nikon CP995.

Bullfinch, Southey Woods

Another excellent local PBC trip to Southey Woods had a few highlights and this was one of them. Bullfinches are a familiar and always welcome sight but this one just sat there for ages feeding providing an unusual opportunity for some digiscoping.

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)




Digiscoped with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 20x eyepiece.

Waxwings, Boulevard Retail Park

A great location for a species that so often turns up in supermarket carparks. In this case it is a retail park but much the same really. This party of 12 come hot on the heels of 3 at Crown Lakes on 1 January.

Although very tame, the dull conditions and activity of the birds made photography rather difficult, but here are a few shots including a closeup of the waxy tips.

Waxwings Bombycilla garrulus
 
 
 

Digiscoped with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 20x eyepiece.

Shag at Dog in a Doublet

This is probably the most reliable location in the area for Shags but it has been a while since the last one here. This one was also seen feeding at Eldernell Lakes and may also be responsible for other brief local sightings. Previous occurences here have stayed for a while and this one is no exception. It may have stayed longer had it not been for its untimely demise, probably a casualty of the adjacent road on 4 Jan 2004.

Along with Red and Black-throated Divers, Guillemot and Kittiwake it makes a fine set of recent seabird records for the PBC area's own bit of "coast".

Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis
 

Digiscoped with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 20x eyepiece.

Common Buzzard, Elton

This is an extremely pale adult and has been present in the Elton area since at least December 2001. In flight it even shows a tail with a pale base leading to possible confusion with Rough-legged Buzzard.

Common Buzzard Buteo buteo
 

Digiscoped with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 20x eyepiece.

Dartford Warbler, Stanground Wash

A most unexpected find and an unusual location. I check out the Sewage Works and outfall here for Green Sandpipers and Grey Wagtails and always take a look at the washland opposite where Short-eared and Barn Owl are regular as well as Stonechats and the like. What I didn't expect was what looked like a brown Long-tailed Tit bouncing towards me through the vegetation along the River Nene. As it passed just below me I couldn't quite believe I was having point blank views of a Dartford Warbler. The bird stayed on the bank next to me for a while but typically, just as I went for the camera, it flew to the far side of the opposite river bank and gave me 20 nerve racking minutes before Steve Dudley caught a brief glimpse then I saw it again in the middle of the wash. Views were more distant but I was extremely relieved that there was something for the arriving hoards to see. It showed well enough to provide these record shots, most of which were taken at long range or in low light.

This is the 270th species for the PBC area and there are also no other records for Huntingdonshire. There are two other Old Cambs records, neither of which were twitchable - one from 1870 at Great Abingdon and one in a garden in Cherry Hinton in February 2001.

Dartford Warbler Sylvia undata
 

Pushing the limits of digiscoping with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 32x eyepiece.

Greenland White-fronted Goose, Hampton North Lake

This adult Greenland White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons flavirostris) with very dense barring and rather dark upperparts was initially located on Orton Brick Pit with a group of mainly Greylag Geese, which also contained a Pink-footed Goose and the regular Barnacle and Bar-headed Geese. Part of the flock containing these geese then headed off to Hampton North Lake where the White-front posed for these pictures. 
 
 
 
 
Digiscoped with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 20x eyepiece.

Hoodie

Another Kevin Du Rose special and a long-stayer. This was at the beginning of its stay near the rubbish tip at Tanholt Pits. The species is a recent split from the common Carrion Crow and is not annual in the Peterborough area.

Conditions were terrible for photography but here is a distant shot taken through the mist and gloom.

Hooded Crow Corvus cornix

Digiscoped with the Nikon CP995, Leica APO77 and 32x eyepiece.