My latest trip was to Saltholme RSPB with Jen and Joe on Sunday.
There was no shortage of sightings. I had certainly hoped to see an avocet but in the end we must have seen going on 20! We also caught up with a rarity in the form of Temmincks Stint (two birds). Overall there were too many photos to display individually so I've run them together in a video:
This actually excludes some of the more common birds such as sand martin, shoveler, pochard, tufted duck mallard and a pair of canada geese who escorted their (already plump) brood to hoover up leftover bird seed underneath the feeders outside the cafe.
The bright coloration of the two linnets we saw was particularly striking, but spare a thought for the poor reed bunting.
When we stopped to watch it, it started to come nearer and nearer, calling all the while. At first we thought it might be begging for scraps but it was actually in distress as Joe found out when he spotted a stoat nearby escaping with a chick in its mouth.
I wasn't too sure about the identification of the sedge warbler, as the head shape and eye stripe in my photo didn't look right but other photos of the same bird were conclusive.
We didn't manage to see spoonbill or marsh harrier (apart from one suspect) but both are present.
It might be added that, on a finer day, we would have seen butterflies and bees in the plentiful wild vegetation but a see fret and resulting 12C temperature and north wind (!) meant we were restricted to just one very small buff-tailed bumblebee.
Meanwhile the garden has been fairly quiet. I did at last manage to capture a male orange tip on film.
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| Orange Tip |
Typically, I also managed to identify a couple of mystery bees about a week back. After consulting inaturalist for not very impressive feedback, I'm plumping for Willughby's leafcutter bee and Marsham's nomad bee but without a great deal of conviction. Who really knows about these nomad bees?..
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