26/06/11
Patch
With Birdlife becoming a bit scarce, i decided to do a little butterfy/drangonfly watching or whatever you call it.
However that doesnt mean there wasnt birds around.
I will start with the bird news.
On the Feeder a Juv Siskin was feeding:
But the Highlight was where i was told about a breeding pair of mandarin on the patch AGAIN,
a different pair to the Blackstone pair, this one had hatched 4 Chicks, but by the time i saw them (2 days after they were first seen) there was only 3 chicks, all going strong on the riverbank.
I had Around 45 Mins sitting with the Female Mandarin and her 3 Chicks, at quite close quarters.
Look how cute the Chicks are:
And the Mother Panting in the intense heat.
Firstly the Mandarins were on the opposite bank, but they soon swam over towards me, and preened on the bank around 3 Metres from me!!!!
SOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!
On the insect front, i was looking for one thing in particular, i had been told some info off Jason K ( Shenstone Blog) of where to find Scarlet Tiger moth on the patch, I didnt actually walk as far as where he said he knew there was some,
On the way up the river bank, i was looking out for Comfrey plants as this is where i had been told to look, and it wasnt long before i spied 2 Scarlet Tigers perched on the plant.
The patch was absolutly teeming with Butterflys
100C Ringlet
100c 'White' Butterflys
30c Skipper sp
8+ Small tortoiseshell
20c Marbled White
10c Meadow Brown
5 Green Veined White
1 Small Copper
I took many photo's ( mostly of the gorgeous Marbled whites)
Also around were a few Damselflies.
2 Beautiful Demoiselle
Loads of Banded Demoiselle
10c White Legged Damselfly,
There was also many others which i couldnt Identify
MB
5 comments:
I'm glad you managed to find some Scarlet Tigers Craig, they are cracking moths.
By the way love your close up photo of female Mandarin. Very nice indeed!
P.s. I didnt know you had Marbled Whites on your patch. Its great to know they are so close. Hopefully they will colonise Shenstone at some point
Thanks to you for the info on the Scarlet tigers :)
And cheers, it was just nice to be able to get that close to the Fem Mandarin and her chicks in goood light.
I didnt know the patch had marbled whites either :P, untill i found 20 odd on the Moorhall meadow on this day, must've missed them :)
Its not too far from shenstone so maybe it wont be long untill they colonise there :)
MB
Hi Craig , superb numbers of butterflies , especially like the Marbled whites one of my favs , and congrats on having breeding Mandarin on your patch
Rob
Marbled White's are one of my favorites too, its why i concentrated on them so much.
Breeding mandarin are a nice additon to the patch
MB
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