20140729 NWT Holme Dunes

Brian was unable to make today's trip but went over to Holme for a look around the site.
Great welcome from Kelvin and Gus and have got signed up to do stuff on a regular basis...!
Fantastic variety of habitat here, butterflies and dragonflies out in abunance today as mega hot.

Black-tailed Skimmer. Male. Reed stem across shot in forground.

Ruddy Darter. Male.

Common Darter. Female.

Small Skipper. Male.
Dispite the dark and dull appearance of the antennae I think this is a Small rather than
an Essex due to the rounded forwing tips.

20140726 Silvery Gem event

Silvery Gem. Shown at NWT Cley following trap at Weybourne.
1st genuine record for British Isles MK.
Photographically a green mat behind the jar may have helped bring out the pink tones.

 Not looking too well.
Not a good event, poorly managed.

20140724 Yellow Wagtial, Greyling & Gatekeeper. NWT Cley Marshes

20140724 Yellow Wagtail
Fresh juvenile. Proof of breeding on the reserve...?

2010725 Grayling
 Inland side of shingle ridge. Always alights with wings close.

20100725 Gatekeeper
 Male.

20140725Yellow Horned-poppy
 Eye Field in background.

20140722 Montagu's Harrier

Marsh Harrier female on the same flight line as the Monty's. At least 2 birds appeared in the area.

Montagu's Harrier female, Hunting over barley field. Male not seen all morning.

3 long primarie tips compared to Marsh Harriers rounded 5.

Long narrow wings and tail cf Hens.
Also showed narrower and cuvered white rump patch.

Female and 2 juveniles rising up for food pass.

20140721 Emperor Dragonfly

Female Emperor laying eggs in the fresh water of Catchwater Drain, NWT Cley.
Male was patroling up and down the channel. Emperors can tolerate brackish water.

Frequent rapid beating of forewings and bubbles appearing near ovipositor which is just below water surface.

Lift off and process repeated in small area of pondweed.

20140719 Intermedius Lesser Black-back Gull, Cley Marshes

20140719 LBb Gull Larus fuscus intermedius
Bird on Pats Pool 09:15 in loose group of loafing BHG.
Upperparts only one shade off black lighter than primaries.
Darkest LBb Gull to date and appeared compact and smallish but no other large gulls present.

20140719 Intermedius LBb
Mirror only on P10. Strange moult around both eyes.

20140719 Intermedius LBb
Faintest of white primary tips.

20140719 Intermedius LBb

20140424 Lesser-black Back
Salthouse. 

20140715 Black-winged Pratincole

Quiet sunny afternoon walk with relatives shattered by Black-winged Pratincole at Cley.
Alerted to bird on Pat's Pool from Dawke's hide by birder who scoped it.
Obvious we had a Pratincole but which one?
After being hastled by a Lapwing the bird lands with underwings on view and showed all black.
But was enough light getting onto the sensor at this range...?
As on jolly only had 600mm on monopod, Bigma left at home.... (Note, always take biggest lens to Cley??)

Bird flies low again due to Lapwing, again shows all dark underwing and no white trailing edge on upperwing.
Two young chaps in hide had birdguide to hand so checked against shots and at this point we
elected to run round to Bishop's hide.
Young chaps pass us at a hellish pace, stop and zoom back again as bird seen to fly onto Simond's.

Bird head on sat down behind Lapwing on Simond's scrape.
Call from the UK's leading twitcher... is it Oriental!? Rapid run through ID... nooope.

Lapwing flock put up. Forked tail shows on Praticole. Upperwing seen well at this time,
overall dark and without a white trailing edge to secondaries.

Upperwing and mantle show darker than nape. Almost same tone on Collard.

Tail seemed to fall short of primary tips, often longer on Collard.

Bird alighting, long legs showing.

Bird re-located at Stiffky Fen on 17th. Flew off high to West as I was setting up.
Black tail feather spread in this shot.

Built for rapid flight, difficult to follow as bird changed direction several times.
Barrel chested reminiscent of Pom.

Black-winged Pratincole.
Pen & Ink sketch from photos by Trevor Williams.

20140704 NWT Cley Hides Vol. The Year of the Spoonbill

Field Bindweed South end of the East Bank. Arrow shaped leaves bottom right.
Now need a shot of Sea Bindweed.

Emperor Dragonfly. Male hunting along dyke by East Bank.

Four-spotted Chaser. By East Bank also. Continually returned to this perch. Note prominent brown eyes.

Four-Spotted Chaser. Wings rather damaged but black spots just visable at the wing tips and nodes.
Focal length 2800mm.

Little Ringed Plover. Juv on Simond's Scrape.

Spoonbill on Pats Pool. All but 1 of the count this morning flew in here.

Spoonbill. Juv and adult. Flock flew around the hide 2 or 3 times.

Spoonbill. Juvs banking. What a display!

North Norfolk News.
Weekly news paper, Thursday 10th July.

Eastern Daily Press.
Tuesday 8th of July.

Stuart's article in the Sunday Express.
He sent a copy and the book, British Wildlife Photography Awards, coll 4.
What a nice chap and nice upbeat article.

20140702 NWT Cley Beach CP attendant

Steph a mile out with the sea birds fishing from canoe. Gull feeding frenzy gives away location of  Sea Bass.
1400mm, f16, 1/1000, -1.0EV

NWT member Steph back ashore with catch minus one for CP attendants tea.
Knife wasn't really sharp enough so head was a bit of a hack. Note cut sharp fins off with scissors first.

Top Action Man.

Gull and Tern feeding frenzy. 2800mm, f13 with 1.4x telecon, but needs to be shut down to f16 for such a distant shot.

Captain Brain of the para's intercepts last group of squadies on hike to Hunstanton.
Flaggers and those who had taken off boots,
put in mini-bus and taken to camp at Holkham.

Last group then have picnic on West bank. Never a dull moment at the CP.