I went up to fen Bog yesterday, I've only been a couple of times before about 4 years ago so I went mainly in the hope of seeing some butterflies and anything else would be a bonus.

The most obvious birds there were the whinchat and I saw at least 5 pairs some feeding young.
Also there were plenty of willow warblers, a couple of whitethroats, a green woodpecker, reed warblers and a few flyover curlew.
It was the insects that stole the show, small pearl bordered fratiliary and large heath (butterflies) a keeled skimmer and the most impressive was a golden ringed dragonfly a massive creature (in terms of dragonfly).
there were plenty of people there to look at the insects and I could easily be tempetd to get some more suitable photographic equipment.
Fen bog is areally special place and I will be back again.

Long live our sparrows!

It was a shame to hear of the plight of our house sparrows on Springwatch the other night.They have reduced dramatically in numbers around the country to now be on the red list.
Fortunately we have a fairly heathy population around our back way, we feed them all day long and the local flock has been boosted by what looks like a good brood of youngsters.
On recent sunny day I was fortunate enough to get these intimate shots, and in good light and breeding plumage these little characters are pretty special.
Long live our house sparrows!

Fantastic Day

Its been a bit slow in East Yorks just lately and as I had booked a week off I was hoping for something unusual to turn up.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be so I went out of county in search of some goodies.
First stop was Weeting Fen for some stone curlews.
None at first but then 3 showed together-very nice to see a lifer albeit distant and shrouded in heat haze.There was alos a spotted flycatcher here.
next stop was RSPB reserve at Lakenheath.It was the first time I had been to this reserve and what a cracking spot.
The temperature was hovering around 27 degrees and the golden orioles were at the far end.As I walked down there were plenty of common warblers plus at least 3 cuckoos.
The golden orioles had been reportd singing from the third plantation and as soon as I got there they were sining away.
One showed very briefly a couple of times, but was quite distant.There was alos a hobby hawking above and a bittern booming in the distance.
On the way back I saw a very attractive banded demoiselle.
Then on to Welney, first birds were a couple of whooper swans, then round for the bluethroat.
I thought there would be a bigger crowd but there was only a small handful of people there.It performed brilliantly well for most of the afternoon often coming to within 3m of where I was stood.There was also a male garganey and 2 turtle doves.
Overall it was a fantastic day, some great birds and a good supporting cast toped off by marvellous views of the bluethroat.















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