Nothing but a streak

You might be forgiven for thinking a Brown Hairstreak is an unsightly slight soiling of underwear. However you’d be wrong. It’s a butterfly. Correction. It’s an elusive butterfly. Living almost the entirety of its life in tall Ash trees feeding on the sweet sap excreted by aphids they are hard to find; and I mean really hard to find. A good deal of patience is required to see them, let alone photograph them. I managed this shot of one in flight the other week. It’s better to wait until a little later in the season until females come down lower to lay eggs; but I guess I’m just impatient.

Advertisements

Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby

They have been described as ‘living jewels’. When you see your first they certainly make you draw breath;, they are quite beautiful however they could easily pass unnoticed. Ruby tailed Wasps are small; As parasitic wasps go it’s smaller than what you would think at only 8 to 10mm long and only a couple of millimetres wide. Their speed and agility as they inspect other wasps nests into which they lay their eggs is astounding; a photographers nightmare. They aren’t common either. So scarcity, size and restlessness makes them an ‘interesting‘ photography subject.

Mammal Tour 2019

The 2019 Mammal Tour is now open for bookings – full details are available to download here

Take a look at just a few of the mammals we encountered this year … and it’s not just about mammals either … some amazing birds to be seen too.

The Scottish Badger is a smaller race than the English version.

We saw two pods of Bottlenose Dolphins on the east coast.

We saw around 150 Common Dolphin – always the most entertaining of mammals and everyone’s favourite – this was taken from the boat before the animal surfaced..

Porpoise were in good numbers around Ardnamurchan. I stopped counting when I got to more than a hundred.

One of seven Minke Whales we came accross

We watched this Osprey displaying with a fish. One of nine birds we saw during the week

The most enigmatic mammal of the Highlands this Pine Marten really entertained us

A surprise interloper at a bait ball we came across was this Pomarine Skua sporting full ‘spoons’ – always good to see.

Prolific in the Highlands we saw some good herds of Red Deer

Never as easy to find during late May as they are earlier in the year we eventually saw a few Red Squirrels

Several Storm Petrels were seen during our boat trip to the Cairnes of Col

One surprise mammal was this male Walrus. Something we REALLY didn’t expect to see.

We saw several White tailed Eagles while searching for the 22 mammals we eventually saw

Did we see any Common Dolphins on the mammal tour?

You bet your life we did!

A Highland Horde

Our birders tour to Scotland has just completed. Most of the usuals were sighted with a few additions. We even managed to call in at Musselburgh and see three species of Scoter; Common, Velvet and American White Winged. The bird of the trip for me had to be Crested Tit. They never fail to endear themselves to me. Never easy to find in April as they disappear from their previous winter haunts and females start to sit on eggs. If you fancy coming along on next years tour here are the details.

https://www.wildlifetoursandeducation.co.uk/app/download/10083937/Itinerary+-+Scottish+Birders+Special+Tour+2019.pdf

 

three degrees and a rising tide

A temperature shock greeted me as I walked along the beach. Three degrees of mercury and a cutting wind which took no prisoners. A far cry from the searing Antipodean heat. Here on the North Norfolk coast a long staying Glaucous Gull was playing ball and being photographer friendly. Not so the reported probable Viking Gull which never made an appearance,

“To your right!”

The intermittent Iceland Gull within the Cley area recently, has been damn difficult to see. We were stood in the ‘beach hotel’ at the NWT Car Park when it flew east just offshore at nothing less than warp eight speed. “Our engines canny take any more Jim” It couldn’t have flown faster had it been designed by Sir Frank Whittle.

Too quick for some to see … apparently.