Adela reaumurella - Long Horn Moth

I recently put out a plea to id these flys well how daft am I they aren’t a fly but a day time flying micro moth - many thanks to http://devilbirder.blogspot.com/ and John Davidson for their expertise,

226th Birthday of John James Audubon

 

 

Only seems right that if Google are celebrating (its their banner I’ve pinched above) then a blog dedicated to birding should too so here’s a few facts pinched from Wikipedia!

“Audubon's influence on ornithology and natural history was far reaching. Nearly all later ornithological works were inspired by his artistry and high standards. Charles Darwin quoted Audubon three times in On the Origin of Species and also in later works. Despite some errors in field observations, he made a significant contribution to the understanding of bird anatomy and behavior through his field notes. Birds of America is still considered one of the greatest examples of book art. Audubon discovered 25 new species and 12 new subspecies.  He was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Linnaean Society, and the Royal Society in recognition of his contributions.”

We were very lucky to be given a copy of “The Audubon’s Society Baby Elephant Portfolio Birds of America” - a beautiful book if not a little heavy at 8Kg if you ever get a chance to browse a copy then do so you wont regret it.

Tawny Pipit in Lincolnshire

A quick twitch to see this lovely Tawny Pipit at Tetney Lock this morning - very hard to photograph as constantly hidden amongst the grass and dandelions but did manage this very short video clip when it flew up onto the fence to dry off after a quick bath.

 

Tawny Pipit at Tetney Lock, Lincs 25/4/11

Fly ID required please

A quick visit in to Normanby Park this morning to track down the Nuthatch nest yet again (successful this time!) led me to clouds of these wonderful flies dancing among the trees - I know they aren’t St Marks flies which are due any day now so what are they?

Wayne had an early 4.30 start back at Messingham this morning to do a full Warbler count as it seems to be one of the best springs certainly in my memory for both numbers and earliest dates for migrants - he counted 37 Reed Warbler, 12 Sedge Warbler, 6 Garden Warbler and and 2 Lesser Whitethroat.

 

Fly ID required

“The Birds” today in the Scunthorpe Area

Lots of migrants today but no photos as either too foggy or too sunny.
We started the day at Bagmoor where we had our first Swift of the year and a large falcon over the tip which we put down as a Lanner(probably a falconers brought in to chase the Gulls off).  Along the road side plenty of Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats and Willow Warblers all trying to out do each other vocally.  On to Barton where we had unprecedented numbers of Grasshopper Warblers, Lesser Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers and a couple of Bearded Tits along with our first Common Terns of the year.  Later in the day a trip to Messingham with a short stop off at Normanby Enterprise where a couple of Wheatears, a Green Sandpiper, a Cuckoo and Little Ringed Plovers put in an appearance.  At Messingham 12 Black Terns gave a great display over the main lake serenaded by a Cuckoo and in the late evening a fantastic aerial display by our first Hobby of the year hawking insects over the Grebe lake plus our earliest ever Garden Warbler, also seen on  the sheep field at the back of the reserve a Little Ringed Plover and Yellow Wagtail.
A quick stop off at home gave us our first ever Common Whitethroat in the garden and a pair of Nuthatches are still persistently visiting and calling in the garden but we are still unable to track down the nest site.

Around Scunthorpe today....

No photos but plenty of birds including our first Cuckoos - 1 at Normanby Enterprise and 1 at Messingham, 8 Wheatears around Messingham, 4 Yellow Wagtails and Whitethroat at Butterwick Hale. On Thursday I also had a Little Gull at Normanby Enterprise.

Whilst at Messingham we also experienced a "first" in the form of a Black-Headed Gull being grabbed and pulled completely under the water by a huge Pike - immediately the whole Gull flock started mobbing the area and eventually the Pike let go and the stricken Gull managed to swim to safety but was unable to fly clear - its wings were not broken  so it must have suffered some serious injury to its underparts - interestingly the rest of the Gull colony continued to mob the injured Gull.

Messingham Sand Quarries day list

Spent close on 8 hours at Messingham today going for a day list to beat all day lists - in the end we saw a total of 80 species highlights include 26 Chiffchaffs, 12 Willow Warblers, 1 Reed Warbler, 13 Blackcaps, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Peregrine and best of all 4 pairs of Willow Tits - it was a beautiful day with lovely blue skies and seemingly endless Buzzards and Marsh Harriers of course we were probably seeing the same ones all day.  However one of our target birds was Wheatear which we didn’t have at MSQ but we did find this one on the way home at Black Bank.

Slavonian Grebe - Water’s Edge, Barton

I love this bird so that’s why there are too many pictures on - we went to see it yesterday evening and this morning it turned up at Blacktoft Sands as did coincidently my Mother and Father, so we shall have to see what their photos are like we may have competition!

The Life and Times of a Skunk Cabbage

I have been photographing the Skunk Cabbage in Normanby Park over the past few days/weeks culminating in the shots at the end of this post - every spring I get sucked in to taking loads of images of these stunning plants and I know I have put far too many images in this one post but they are stunning.  If you want to see them in all their glory you’ll need to be quick, as you can see from the last image they’re on their way out.