Sunday 2 August 2009

Utterly butter(f)ly



Had a late morning/early afternoon stroll with Jenny and the Aldcliffe area was awash with butterflies. Lots of painted ladies were in evidence, as expected given the caterpillar count earlier. Also good numbers of speckled woods and a few commas though only a couple of small tortoiseshell and peacock.

Bird-wise, the juv little-ringed plover was on the Flood, then latterly the marsh.

Two family parties of lesser whitethroat were heard and seen along the cycle track and lots of groups of goldfinch and greenfinch were noisily buzzing about.

At the Wildfowlers' Pools a shoveler was new in. 5 green sandpiper were visible from the metal gate.

The Frog Pond mallard brood has shrunk to 1 - I wonder what's been predating those? That particular pool seems to have a terrible track record for the successful fledging of wildfowl.

At Freeman's Pools it was business as usual: 11 coot, 3 little grebe, 4 heron, 5 mallard & 2 common sandpiper. Up to 30 swift were feeding here.


Evening visit

Quick blast round on the bike just to see if anything new had dropped in.
The tufted duck was back on Freeman's Pools though there was little else there of note.

3 green sandiper, 1 snipe and the LRP were seen at the Wildfowlers' Pools.

A couple of kestrel were hunting around the area.

No comments: