This morning thought I would check the west and south areas of the parish, including the local golf course. Usual birds about in the lanes and footpaths, (warblers etc) but at an overgrown flooded gravel pit I came across a pair of mandarin. They have been present here for several years but so flighty I have never managed a photo of them apart from poor quality flyby ones.
Also on the water, a pair of tufted duck, mallard and a moorhen. In the trees where plenty of long tailed tit and 2 common buzzards overhead. First record of tufted duck at this particular site.
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male mandarin |
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pair of mandarin |
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female mandarin |
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pair of tufted duck |
After this I headed off round a wood where several dunnock were seen to a large nettle patch. As I checked this all I could hear were loads of treecreepers. Obviously some had just fledged as 5, 3juveniles and 2 adults, were flitting about and feeding on the boughs and trunks of the hornbeams.
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dunnock, male |
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recently fledged treecreeper |
In the nettles were the regular insects that I checked. A wasp beetle was a new find and a (presumed) nursery web spider sp. A common carpet moth along with green veined white, small and large white, peacock, orangetip and small tortoiseshell were also all noted.
A stonefly posed on a dock
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wasp beetle |
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stonefly sp |
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nursery web spider sp |
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peacock |
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10 spot ladybird, perhaps |
A coffee at the golf club was required due to the heat, so off along footpaths where whitethroats and blackcaps were singing. Above adjacent fields skylarks sang and a yellowhammer called.
On the golf course, my first common blue butterfly of the year.
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common blue, male |
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common carpet |
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common vetch |
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