Draycote Water - Ruff, Ringed Plover and Little Ring Plover

A great morning at Draycote getting up close and personal with the Ruff, Ringed Plover and Little Ringed Plover, and learning that patience really does pay off :) We sat down on the stones and just waited and eventually we had superb views they were right in front of us I was amazed the feeling of having beautiful birds so close is an amazing feeling is my fav part of birding.
We got some nice photos but just watching them go about there business is a great experience.

 

Warwickshire Lowlands- Spotted Flycatchers and more

Had a brilliant morning we decided to do some bird watching on the Warwickshire lowlands we had at least 3 Spotted Flycatchers, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 20 + Skylarks and 3 Yellow Wagtails.
We were hoping we would find a Redstart but no luck but was so much fun finding are own birds and always a pleasure seeing Spotted Flycatcher. Also got my first photos of  Painted Lady Butterfly :)    

Icterine Warbler - Burnham Overy, Norfolk

We headed to Norfolk today for the Icterine Warbler at Burnham Overy, What a treat we had the Icterine was so showy such a beautiful bird and to have views like we did was amazing at one point it landed right in front of us to gobsmacked to even take a photo lol We got some nice photos :)
I was really pleased to have the chance to see Icterine after are very special Melodious in Warwickshire which is very similar to Icterine it was nice to have the chance to see the differences the one thing that really stood out on the Icterine was the pale eye ring which wakes the eyes really stand out in comparison to the Melodious, Also the greyer legs on the Icterine, on the Melodious there a lot paler.
Also the Icterine has longer primary projection relative to the tertials and with the Melodious there is a significant step between the tertials & primaries.
There are other slight differences but the ones mentioned are the most noticeable which can be seen in the photos below by Dave Hutton.

Icterine Warbler by Dave Hutton

Melodious Warbler by Dave Hutton

It was lovely having the chance to see such a gorgeous bird that was so showy like this here are a few of my shots not as good as Dave's lol but just happy to of seen the Icterine.

Draycote Water - Ruff

We had a lovely morning at Draycote Water with a showy Juvenile Ruff, stunning wading birds and so pleased to have such lovely close views and get some photos.
I think Ruff is my favorite Wading bird just something about them :)
Also managed to get some photos of Common Blue Butterfly there was quite a lot about which was lovely to see.

White-winged Black Tern and Red-footed Falcon 6/08/15

We had a lovely day Saturday we went to Westport in Stoke-on-Trent for the White-winged Black Tern a lifer for me bringing my list up to 225 still can't believe I have seen that many birds and every one of them is because of Dave i'm so grateful for each and every bird and what a bird stunning this was a juvenile really pretty with like a light brown coloring near his face almost looks like a Juvenile Black Headed gull but a lot more elegant looking ;)
We had lovely flight views was so nice watching in flight he seemed to be teasing the gulls too lol
I struggled with photos it's hard when there in flight but Dave managed to get two beautiful photos I think there stunning :)

 

Take by Dave Hutton

 

Taken by Dave Hutton 

We then went back to Chatterley, Stoke to see the Red-footed Falcon, so pleased to of seen him again really is a gorgeous bird, had nice views, but he was perced not that far away but i couldn't see past the bush I tip toed but as I went click my feet went back down making blurry photos lol I did get one ok photo, main thing is I got to see him again always an honour to see every bird but getting to see a bird like this twice is beyond an honour.
Very enjoyable day as Bird wise it has been quite lately so me and Dave have been doing Butterflys. Moths, Dragonflies which I love so much got quite addicted to the Moths its very exciting but was great today getting back into seeing birds I have missed them :)

Trittiford Mill Pond update

The summer Months at Trittiford has been very quite perhaps not helped by the increasing amount of fishermen, and now the building work has started on the out flow, although the Herons seem to like it because the one side is closed of to the public there was five Herons there the other day :)
Lovely views of a kingfisher perched by the river.
The six Cygnets is now down to 4 cygnets the one got attacked by a dog and the other was taken into the RSPB as it was limping but died shortly afterwards :( very sad news, but the remaining 4 Cygnets and mum and dad are all doing well.
Unfortunately this year the Great Crested Grebes have not had any young which is suprising because they were doing the mating dance, but the last few times I have been I have only seen one Great crested Grebe.
All the young goslings are now growing up and look like adults only seems like five minutes since they were tiny lol.
The bridge and grassy area near the scrap yard as you walk through the pathway has been full of Butterfly's, Dragonflies and damselflies, beautiful sight to see so many, lot's of Comma butterfly's and large and small Skippers.
A lovely Banded Demoiselle flying about and settled for me to get a photo which was nice.
Also a Brown Hawker settled munching on a Butterfly lovely to watch. :)
Also loads of Peacock Caterpillars about hopefully we will be getting some more Peacock Butterfly's.
Hopefully the next couple of months will pick up when I walked past the Old mill Pond a few weeks ago the Little Egret was perched in the tree that's a good sign that his back, fingers crossed we will get some good birds this year :)