Common Spotted-Orchid - Dactylorhiza fuchsii and Common Poppy - Papaver rhoeas

Burnt-tip Orchids - Orchis ustulata

Once again timing is everything and once again I got it wrong - the first five images were taken on the 9th June 2007 and the last image was taken this morning - spot the difference!

and it’s not even in focus!

A load of old Ferns

It has occurred to me that this blog is suppose to be about our garden as well as nature(birds!) so here’s what we did to our front garden a number of years back.  Our front garden has a number of problems but the number one problem is cats and the fact that they poo all over it, so we turned all the beds over to ferns in a bid to cut out any bit of spare ground for them to dig in - I hasten to add that we don’t have a cat which makes it even more annoying and one of the eight that roam around here has also just had a nest full of Blackbird chicks in the front garden so they are not flavour of the month.  Anyway back to Ferns, we have around 20 different species so don’t assume all the images below are the same! I have been trying to get some half decent images for weeks now but it is always windy and today is no exception so I know most of them are not sharp but if I waited much longer they would be covered in snow - speaking of which all the Ferns survived the winter except our one and only Tree Fern - our own fault we should have protected it

Now imagine if we had eight of these cats - they would soon see off the locals - taken in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa not Normanby.

Stormy skies over Alkborough’s Spoonbill

A dramatic storm built up all around Alkborough Flats this evening putting the visiting Spoonbill in fantastic light.

 

Messingham’s Buglife

Bumped into an Entomologist from Buglife surveying insects at Messingham today - a mind of information but unfortunately all of which went over my head!  However I did id the following female Black-Tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum)  drying in the sun and a lonesome Tiger Beetle (Cicindela campestris) - he on the other hand had a list of insects as long as your arm, one of which was a fly which he wasn’t expecting this far north and which he was quite excited about, if only I could remember its name!

Bee Orchids, Common Broomrape and Biting Stonecrop

Found on a local roadside this morning….
Bee Orchids
Common Broomrape


Biting Stonecrop

Magical Messingham Sand Quarries

Spent a wonderful couple of hours this morning watching first a shoal of fish which were probably Rudd and then two battleships came cruising in (see third video below) which I think were either Tench or some sort of Carp?(Just been told they're Bream so completely wrong)  But then we had half an hour in total, watching two Otters playing and fishing in front of the Duck Hide – now I know nothing about Otters so if someone can perhaps age/sex the pair it would be great – one was much paler than the other and had a bright pink nose – at one stage a large Eel was caught and they then disappeared only to re-appear ten minutes later.

White-Throated Robin - Hartlepool, UK

Only Wayne could make it there and back before work - he has finally pulled this one back on me, I first watched a pair feeding chicks in a nest in Turkey 1990 and this female doesn’t come close!  So as far as I’m concerned he’s still one behind. Sorry about the quality of the video I can’t work the editing out in movie maker so lots of empty pavement.

Tulip Tree - Liriodendron tulipifera

Good stroll round the Park this morning - my favourite tree is in flower and after a couple of weeks of not seeing the Spotted Fycatcher they were both back at the nest site taking in nest material so thankfully all is well.

Golden Oriole at Alkborough Flats

Oh dear, dreading Wayne coming home from work I’m going to have to tell him that I have heard and seen a Golden Oriole in the woods above Alkborough Flats this morning courtesy of Graham (thank you Graham sorry you didn’t see it!).

Breeding Curlews

No photos as the weather continues to be blowing a gale with nothing keeping still! Highlight of the weekend has to be finding a family of breeding Curlew within the Scunthorpe Reporting Area and I'm pretty sure I know of another pair just need to check them out - today we decided not to go to Spurn and see Icterine Warbler, Rosefinch, Golden Oriole, Marsh Warbler but instead find our own birds at Humberston - so we saw a Little Egret and a Corn Bunting and for the third time we didn't see the White Tailed Eagle hanging out on the Wolds. Friday evening also saw us on a wild goose chase - searching out a Marsh Warbler at Messingham which turned out to be a Reed Warbler.
HOT OFF THE PRESS - Barn Owl hunting in paddock at end of our garden as I type! first Barn Owl I have seen since the dreadful winter - at least one has survived and the way it was hunting and shot off with prey it must be feeding young not far away.