my family

28/06/09

local patch.after on the privious friday finding a family of whitethroat in the nettley area where the nightingale was(another namedropper)

the nightingale area

i decided to come back on sunday to get some shots.i couldent take my bins(as the strap broke at upton the day before and the bins crasshed onto the bourdwalk and broke something internilaly,so now i have no bins,my dad has an identical pair that i might 'borrow').so i took my scope and headed up river.i had no intention to lug my scope up to blackstone so i just stayed watching one of my favorite warblers.i put my scope down in the grass and heard one of the whitethroats calling.(i counted 1 adult male and 2 young on friday)not long after i picked up one of the juvaniles right at the bottom of the bush.i got my scope onto it and got a few decent shots

the male was initially wary of me being there but after about 5 mins he resumed his fartherly duties.he eventually gave superb out in the open views at the end of a branch.

overall i counted 6 whitethroats(pair and 4 young)after getting decent views of all the juvaniles/female birds i was able to single the adult female out by the lack of a gape as well as a few other small fetures.but apart from this family there was little else around apart from a lesser whitethroat(still holding teritory on moorhall meadow) and 4 garden warbler and 2 coal tits on feeders.my other focous was to see some insects the ones i identified were:

2 small tortoiseshell

3 ringlet

20c meadow brown

1 red admiral

1 peacock

20c small coppers

10c speckled woods

and this unidentified moth(or butterfly)

didnt do much exploring over the patch this weekend and just concintrated in a few areas.back to normal next week.

MB