At last, some warm sunshine has arrived after almost continuous dull grey and wet weather for what must have been 8 weeks or more. Most reservoirs in my county of Derbyshire are now classed as 99.5% full. To-day I joined Barrie, Anita & Elliott on a Butterfly walk around Foremark Reservoir. The walk was attended by 4 other people and was designed to be a fairly low key event. The weather & air temperture were both ideal, so it was going to be rather interesting to see what butterflies would be on the wing and in what kind […]
I decide to take a walk round Staunton Harold Reservoir this morning, my “Local Patch”. It proved to be a good move as no sooner on site I discovered two female Common Scoter. The birds were sat in the middle of the reservoir at the dam end and the first record here for a number of years. These sea-duck seem to be regularly encountered on inland waters during July. They were very distant & I could only manage a heavily cropped record shot. Also nearby on one of the marker buoys the regular near adult Yellow-legged Gull, was […]
I photographed Carsington Water, in Derbyshire 9 months ago when the water levels there were at an ALL TIME LOW. What a difference now, when we have had effectively nearly 3 months of continuous rain. The reservoir is now the complete opposite, brim full as never before. This morning it was another grey day, more like November weather than early July. A fine adult Yellow-legged Gull was probably the best bird of the morning. Also 4 Oystercatcher, 2 Speckled Wood and 4 Meadow Brown butterflies. Carsington October 2011 […]
The first sunshine for weeks apparently. Having just come back from Rheims in France on Friday 29th June, I was hoping for some good weather in order to try and photograph my final British resident Butterfly, the Holly Blue. I was really Living in Hope. Several of the villages not far from where I live have excellent habitat for Holly Blue, I simply just needed some warm sunshine and a little luck that one or two were still on the wing from the spring. No such luck, however, so will have to hold out until the second brood […]