Thursday 2 June 2011

2nd June - Butterflies and Spoonbill

Sorry for a lot of posts these days of late but I am trying to catch up on my blog as well as manage a growing work load of birding stuff I am doing these days. 

Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park today produced 1 Grasshopper Warbler showing extremely well and reeling. I recently learnt that Groppers start to reel just before having a second brood at this time of year. So a good sign a second family could well be on the way for this male Gropper. Please view in HD with sound on:

(Grasshopper Warbler - Andrew Kinghorn)


(Grasshopper Warbler - Andrew Kinghorn)

However myself and a mate went mainly to look at dragonflies and butterflies; I am not quite into dragonflies yet but pretty well into butterflys now. Highlight for me was my first ever Speckled Wood. Also we saw loads of Common Blues, Large Skippers, 1 Northern (Durham) Brown Argus, Small Copper, Small Heath, Large White and Small White.

We then decided to have a look at Dorman's Pool but not many butterflies here; only Peacock, Common Blue, and Small Heath noted. No sign of any Dingy Skippers here or Graylings yet. We passed Salthome RSPB today and asked my mate to stop because as we drove past I saw 1 Spoonbill sitting asleep with its head tucked in! Amazingly it was asleep! How out of character for a Spoonbill.

Finally we rounded the day off at Bishop Middleham quarry where we had many Common Blues, load of Durham Brown Argus, Large Skipper, Peacock, Dingy Skipper, Large White, Small White, Orange Tip, and Green-veined White.

Until next time, Foghorn out!

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