As one of my guests put it this weekend: “Charming Choughs and Delightful Dolphins”. She was referring to the Wild Weekend in Wales tour we were on. We got to see both Choughs and Bottlenose Dolphins. Among everything else we saw for me it has to be the Red Kites that topped the list. They are so enigmatic and powerful. To see 250+ of these birds wheeling in a kettle above us is just one of the UK’s wildlife spectacles. Next year’s tour is up on the website and open for bookings.
There have been a few sightings in coastal locations of Broad Bordered Bee Hawkmoth this year. We encountered this individual on tour the other week and although a bit ‘flity’ he did hang around long enough for us to photograph him. Wonderful little beasts.
Arguably the most endearing bird in the UK. Black Guillemot as seen on our trip to Mull in May this year. Not only do they look quite striking but they sound cute too as they whistle to one another.
A visit to North Lancashire, the red rose county, saw us looking at some unimaginably beautiful orchids. Among them were Lady’s Slippers. Good things come in small packages.
On tour last week I was surprised to see a Minotaur Beetle crossing our path up on the Heath. Normally only active at night these are quite impressive insects with three horns emerging from the pronotum. Not having my macro lens with me I had to photograph it with the 100 to 400mm lens I had fitted. With a little readjustment it more or less gave a decent result.
Herd animals are always difficult to photograph. They never look the same way! This little group of Fallow Deer sheltering from early spring sunshine and framed by the tree caught my attention.
I’ve seen African, Indian and Black Skimmers, the American version, previously; but never managed to get a photo of one skimming.
To explain. A skimmer is a species of bird. In fact there are just three different types in the world occupying areas around water in India, America and Africa. They are somewhat tern like in their appearance but much larger and their lower mandible is extended beyond the upper, to give them a very odd appearance. This adaptation enables the bird to fly along with it’s lower mandible ‘trailing’ in water and when it touches a fish it snaps it up and swallows the meal. Cool.
We were watching out over the estuary of the Maipo in Chile. There was a distant flock of several hundred skimmers mixed with gulls towards the other side of the river some one kilometre distant . However a small flock of eight individuals were much closer and they were mobile. Eventually they started to skim right in front of us. A superb bit of evolution.
