Here's a clue - it's knot Dartford

You may not believe it, but I often think a bit about what I'm going to say on the blog before I start typing. We've just had a few days away on holiday, and I thought I'd start with a little photo quiz. Can you guess where we went?
First a general snap just to give a vague sense of location .................


Then a couple of pictures of species named for the location ........

and finally a snap of one of it's best known (former) inhabitants.

Trouble is my insect identification let me down, so if you know your moths you'll be scratching your head at this point!
The answer is Jersey - St Ouen's Bay, Jersey orchid and Gerald Durrell (My Family and Other Animals was an all time favourite of mine). When Kay pointed out the moth I knew it wasn't the 'tiger' we normally see and I said authoritatively "It must be a Jersey tiger." Except it's not. They have lines not blotches. I think this is a cream spot tiger - still pretty, but kind of spoils the start to the post!
St Ouen's Bay is a fabulous expanse of sand. I'm not the world's best sunbather given my celtic origins, and even though there was a bit of cloud about I left Kay to it and went to have a peer in some rock pools.

There were a few fish, etc, but it was these creatures that caught my attention - moving singly or several 'bonding'. Some kind of rock pool mollusc I think they may be a form of sea hare - if you know please tell me by using the comment facility.



The gulls were tending to be a bit twitchy, although as the tide came in they settled and started crabbing pretty successfully.

As ever though the best views came from the tamer ones seeking a share of our lunch.

Anyway, while I was down fossicking I noticed a couple of little shorebirds, which gradually came nearer, working the waterline. As usual the little buggers wouldn't stay still, and I didn't have the easiest camera kit to use (I don't usually take the fast lens away on holiday) but eventually I got my first ever views, let alone snaps, of summer plumage knot. Perhaps the best days sunbathing I've had. [Although there was that evening skinny dipping with the Scandinavian girls in Greece ....................]

So I thought that would probably be it. This wasn't a wildlife holiday after all, and the views of some good sized mullet in the marina were probably the only other sights I'd get.

However, in the cafe there was free internet access and the Jersey Birds website (thanks guys) mentioned some heathland birds that saw me up early for the last 2 mornings to try and see, and hopefully snap a bird that has been on the wish-list for some time now. As it turned out the weather the first day wasn't great - but I did see some. Day 2 saw more sun, and although the lack of a tripod proved a fairly bad decision I also got some snaps worth posting. Not the dunnock, although it was kind enough to pose against the gorse .....

not the meadow pipits either ....................

but these little guys. My first Dartford warblers. I couldn't work out at first what was going on. I thought I'd found a nest as there were definitely a couple of adults catching caterpillars. But there were more than 2 adults. Then they all moved off? Eventually the penny dropped when I had a brief view, and sadly a bit of a ropey snap, of a youngster. It seemed to be a small group of several adults with young that stayed mainly hidden in the dense gorse bushes.

While there I met a friendly guy from Paisley who told me about the 'orchid field' at St Ouen's. As I had seen but not snapped some marsh harriers down there too, I did the sums and decided I could make a quick visit before Kay stirred. I found the Jersey orchids, and some southern marsh orchids, complete with cricket. The harriers were too far off, but they can wait for another year.


Botanically the wall pennywort, or navelwort, seemed to be growing everywhere.
Lastly I found this behind the dunes at St Ouen's. I haven' a clue what it is. If you know please leave a comment, as I hate nameless pictures!

As always some of the shots can be seen in more detail HERE in the web albums

- click on latest pictures.

Mistle Thrush

It's a shame there wasn't sunshine as the views of the mistle thrushes foraging amongst the daisies had real potential. Still nice to see, as was the youngster waiting patiently on the picnic table to be fed.

Incoming ...........

The blog has been fairly quiet recently, but that's because I've been putting a lot of the time I do have into one particular project which I'm not quite ready to reveal yet. As always I keep thinking I can do better, and weather permitting I feel there are some potential improvements to be made on the work so far. So watch this space ............
I did have a change of scene last weekend though, visiting the seaside where I finally got some half-decent shots of a wheatear


and then I had a wander up to the local coppice where the starlings and (I'm sure) the woodpeckers nest. Plenty of likely looking holes, but no sign of any action as yet. I did find a few whitethroat in the local hedges, although the pictures were disappointing. My main camera is out of service at present - hopefully temporarily, just waiting for the quote, bit worried - and with the old 400D, whilst it does the job, the focusing really isn't good against a jumbled background. If you know whitethroats you will be familiar with the territorial flight where the male flies up from the bushes, singing away and then sort of parachutes back down. This one though adopted the lazy approach and just perched on the telephone wires!
And finally a shot taken 50 yards from my house as the sun was going down while the rain clouds rolled in. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to live where I do, but moments like this remind me. Mind you, you can't see the Council depot 100yards to the left!

Breakfast Bar

I'm sure many of you feed the birds as we do. A wooden arch originally intended as a seat has become the site for our sunflower and nijer seed feeders attracting the usual suspects.
However every so often we have a visitor. He may come most days for a week or more, then, presumably as the birds wise up he disappears for a while. Occasionally he'll catch something from the feeders, but more often it seems to be the slightly dozy bird on it's journey in that will catch his eye .....
Check down ...
to the left ....
straight on ...
to the right ...
up..., hang on
into action ...
I missed the action shot and this time he also missed the great tit, but other times he was more lucky. Kay isn't over happy that the mushroom was doubling as a plucking post, but it makes for good views (if not very good handheld shots in the fading light!).
Then he's off again.
To finish let's remember it's Spring and revel in the sun, the blackthorn in bloom against a cloudless sky and recall the story of the birds and the bees. (What is the story of the birds and bees? No-one ever told me).
I know we shouldn't anthropomorphise, but tell me you can't hear Barry White in the background as this loved up pair rewrite my usual impression of aggressive coots.

Videos

I've posted a couple of short videos on my Vimeo site recently. Taken with a pocket digtal camera Panasonic TZ7 I'm quite pleased with the results, all things considered.

Adder, settling to sleep from Brian's 'Wobblecam' Videos on Vimeo.

Water rail from Brian's 'Wobblecam' Videos on Vimeo.

You Dancing?

At present there seem to be lots of Great Crested Grebes posing nicely for photos showing their famous weed dance. I've seen it a few times - mostly at quite long distance, although once in my fishing days I had a good view at a small reservoir near Warrington. In terms of pictures the smaller the water the better really, as they seem to me to tend to be a bit shy.
After a morning watching the adders in the Forest I moved on to a spot Chris G had mentioned, to see if I could get any views of the grebes, dancing or not. Well it turned out not, but I did get some nice views. As this pair were already nest building and, if you look closely, mating (see below) it may be that they got their bonding out of the way a while ago. Or maybe I just wasn't there at the right time. Still I'm not grumbling, as these are miles and away the best shots of great crested footy arses (for anyone who's been with me from the beginning of the blog!) I've managed so far in my fledgling snappery.
These last few shots have an almost painterly quality. Relatively underexposed there seems to be some noise, as though the ISO setting was much higher than my standard 400.
To round a good day off I went to have a look at a long tailed tit's nest in the failing light. For the first time I used my new remote trigger for the camera, allowing me to sit well away from the nest, but still get some pre-focused shots. The low light means the quality is iffy, but the set-up worked as well as I could have hoped.

As always check the web albums for better quality views

Adder additions

Some more shots of adders enjoying the sun on Sunday as much as I was. There were at least 4 alongside a well trodden path at a nationally known birding site, but most people were completely oblivious to their presence - even to the one with the mountaineering pretensions halfway up a a gorse bush!
Despite the excellent light it proved remarkably tricky to get any decent shots with that wonderful forked tongue protruding.

As always better resolution shots in the web albums - just click the link to the right.

Adders

Still struggling to get some decent adder shots, but these are a step forward at least. As always better views in the web albums, along with some more (and dare I say it better) shots of the water rail.