Damsels & Ladies

With bird migration having virtually petered out, attention turned to the garden where 2 Large Red Damselflies were seen around the pond area. Painted Lady butterflies are migrants from the Mediterranean and not usually seen until July but with the pre-ponderance of easterly and south- easterly winds over the past few weeks several have been seen locally recently. I have even encountered some at the Gunton old rail track and the Sparrow's Nest park in the last few weeks.

I have been particularly keen to add them to my digital portfolio of shots having drawn a blank with them photographically over the last couple of years. So I was delighted to see 2 in the garden this afternoon and evening. Initially they were very wary and kept flying off when I tried to get closer shots. But as often happens, they get used to your presence and were eventually quite confiding and I finally got my digital shots!

Landguard Blues

I received a message early morning stating that a rare warbler, a Melodious warbler had been sighted at Landguard Point. It was frustrating as I couldn't twitch it until mid afternoon. With regular updates stating it was still being seen, I decided to try for it. I drove down to the Landguard Point, which is an area of land jutting out between Felixstowe seafront and the huge Felixstowe Docks. and because of its position receives a lot of exciting migrants and Sunday morning was no exception. 

Sadly, by the time we got there, the weather had worsened and we battled a southerly gale and the news that bird had since long gone to ground, and flown off thus ending my proud record of never having dipped anything I had twitched at Landguard. Incidently, Melodious warbler is my big bogey bird. A bogey bird, is a bird you just cannot seem to see whilst all your friends have seen it!

I have tried twitching Melodious warblers at a variety of places including Walton on the Naze, Lowestoft, Scilly Isles and tried several times to see it in its stronghold of Spain and other parts of Southern Europe to no avail and I can now add Landguard Point to this ever burgeoning and sorrowful list.

On a more positive front, in the front garden this morning a recently fledged juvenile Starling showed very well and posed very nicely for photos by sitting in the Rose bed and then feeding underneath the Pyracantha bushes (planted to attract Waxwings- they haven't occurred yet but fingers crossed for December/ January/ February time).

Annoyingly the bird showed again the next day but not in the evening when I tried again, very frustrating!

Lush & verdant!

With the onset of some long overdue Spring rain (we had no April showers this year!) the foliage on the local trees is becoming very thick and luxuriant, making it very hard to spot avian spring migrants.

A 4 hour walk around the Lowestoft area yesterday afternoon, revealed a few migrants including a fine male Whinchat in the Corton Old Sewage works compound, whilst overhead a combined tally of 19 Swallows all flew south. Nearby at Dingly Dell at Corton old rail track, a particularly sunny spot revealed a singleton of both Spotted & Pied Flycatchers often seen in active feeding flight. Both these species are particularly acrobatic in their feeding flight and need to be to catch the insects. A particularly "kamakazi" Bank Vole spent a lot of time feeding and running around right in the open on the wide track just past Dingly Dell!

Painted Lady butterflies were noted at Gunton old rail track and Sparrow's Nest park. Whilst viewing the pollarded area of trees behind the Oval, from Gunton cliff a pair of Blackcap showed well briefly and nearby 3 Chiff Chaffs and a newly fledged Blue Tit were seen feeding on insects and caterpillars.  

More Black Terns

A stop off at the idyllic Filby Broad, in Norfolk after working at Martham in the early evening was very productive revealing 4 fine Black Terns hawking over the water. They spent much of their time at the back of the Broad and often high up in the sky, but a very welcome sight nonetheless. Later on they flew up even higher and away and out of sight.

These migrants have been blown in by the recent spell of easterly winds that we have experienced and follows on from the one I saw flying south off Corton Cliffs yesterday evening. Several Common Terns sat on the rafts provided as artificial nesting sites, and 1 of their number also flew over the Broad.

A rather dark plumaged and confiding Great Crested Grebe vied for my attention, however that was soon diverted onto excellent telescope views of a dashing Hobby flying low over the water obviously feeding on dragonflies and the myriad other insects. I was very pleased to finally see Hobby this Spring after several unsuccessful attempts, now I just want to get that elusive photograph of one now! 

An Easterly blow

For the last few days, we have had strong easterly winds, but so far I have seen none of the expected migrant birds. However, a brief 1/2 hour seawatch in the early evening from Corton Cliffs reached from just off the Baker's Score, revealed a super soot-black Black Tern struggling against the strong east winds to fly south at 6.20pm and a close Fulmar which flew north shortly afterwards.

A Tale of 2 Orchids

With the relatively harsh winter we have recently experienced delaying the flowering of Early Purple Orchids (which are still out in flower in the Gunton area and nearby at a local tourist attraction) I was pleased to spot that several Green Winged Orchids were out in flower too.

I spent an enjoyable 30 minutes or so obtaining shots of these diminutive purple goodies with 7 plants counted near a local tourist attraction and around 9 elsewhere.