Sawn off

Time for a bit of brush-cutting, tree-chopping and bush-bashing at Paxton Pits before the start of the 2014 ringing season...

Summer hawthorn leaves

Red and white and frosty

photos taken with Apple iPhone 4S

Clopton

Looking south towards Royston

Almost harvest-time

Brown Argus

Meadow Browns...

Small Heath

Common Blue

Haws

Elderberries

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, or Canon Powershot A640

Scarce Chaser? Too right...

Made my annual pilgrimage to Roxton today in search of Scarce Chasers, but they were nowhere to be seen (despite being out and about at Woodwalton Fen, not that far away)!

Banded Demoiselles

Red-eyed Damselfly (I think)

Seven-spot Ladybird

the River Great Ouse

Hawthorn and Ash

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

Fowlmere

Chiffchaff. Darren managed to 'pish' this bird - it's the first time I've ever seen pishing work. It sat right up and cocked its head towards us.

Common Darter. No pishing required

Hawthorn leaves

And stunningly bright berries

Ivy - leaves and flowers

Phragmites

Southern Hawker

Umbellifer of some description (Cow Parsley, I suppose)

Distant new galaxy, or spider web?

Motion on water created by whirligig beetles

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Not far from home

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Local birding

Green-winged Teal (right, front)

The above Green-winged Teal was probably the highlight of our day in the Peterborough area, today. It was first found at Woodwalton Fen NNR a couple of weeks ago but has only been visible intermittently, as the Teal flock it's hanging out with like to hide in the reeds. So that was quite lucky.

Male [Common] Teal

Chinese Water Deer

Chinese Water Deer are very odd-looking beasts. There's something rather teddy bear-ish about their faces. They seem to be quite tame - this one came wandering towards us.

The marks on its body are intriguing. Is it the result of fighting or just moulting? You can often see clumps of very coarse fur lying on the ground at Woodwalton - it almost looks like porcupine quills.

You can read more about them at the Deer-UK website.

We started the day at Aversley Wood - a few springy shots below.

Dog-violet

Blackthorn blossom

unidentified flowers!

new Hawthorn leaves

digiscoped photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Castor Hanglands NNR

Whitethroat. Welcome back, my trans-Sahara migrating friend!




Marsh Marigolds




A very smart purple-blue-green-black Pheasant


This Chaffinch was a bit coy, hiding behind a twig...


Blossom

A truly splendid visit to Castor this morning. Two Grasshopper Warblers (the first of many) reeled in the scrub. A Nightingale started up - made me shudder and then grin like an idiot. Lesser Whitethroat rattled away in a hawthorn bush, but evaded capture on Compact Flash card... A Cuckoo sang, getting a bit over-excited and going into that crazy chuckling they do.

Many Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, but no Garden Warblers... can't be long now, surely?

digiscoped photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 62 with 16x eyepiece