Eastern Europe ...Lithuania, a birder's tale. (1 Viewer)

[Jos Stratford]

In order to get a four-day weekend next week, the national government in its wisdom declared today a work day, so started out doing the daily deeds. Half an hour on, was rather cheesed off, so decided I would rather go chasing butterflies.

What a good decision it was - stacks of new butterflies emerging each day now, with both numbers and variety of species excellent. Stopped at a favourite spot and was immediately impressed by the butterflies showing. Loads of Small Skippers newly emerged, plus still a few Large Skippers and a handful of Large Chequered Skipper. Also a Comma or two, a few fresh Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshells, dwindling numbers of Heath Fritillaries and a Purple Emperor bombing past. Got into photo a few of the skippers, then spotted a copper, presumed it to be Purple-edged Copper, a species I saw for the first time a few days back, so went running after it to get a picture. Sneaked in close and, hmm, something different …another new one, a Scarce Copper!

Drove on a bit, still a lot of butterflies about - amongst the more colourful ones, also several Green-veined Whites, one Large White and a couple of Small Whites, dozens of Meadow Browns, a few Ringlets, plus both Chestnut and Pearly Heaths. Tried to photo a couple Hoopoes, but they flew off, so I doubled back and cut into the woodlands where I had seen the Poplar Admirals in days previous. No sign today, but lucked in with yet another new species - a rather deluxe butterfly, a woodland clearing sported no less than a half dozen Black-veined Whites, a very smart species. Busy photographing these and then noticed a big bunch of red clover attracting fritillaries - after a bit of a run around, managed to get some photos of them too, stonking High Brown Fritillaries!

All in all, not bad for a work day - three new species for me, pictures below - the Black-veined Whites, High Brown Fritillaries and Scarce Copper!

 

[Andrew]

Cool set there Jos.

Hoping to score High Brown soon. I think they might be at Dunsford Woods if you know the place.

Are Little Skippers the same as Small Skippers?

 

[Jos Stratford]

Are Little Skippers the same as Small Skippers?

Yes, it's just me using the wrong name! Editted accordingly

Just totalled up, 41 species of butterfly so far this year.

 

[Andrew]

Jeez, that's a lot.

 

[Jos Stratford]

With butterflies continuing to dominate the week's sightings, I was up on my land today to see what I could add to the week's tally. Not big numbers today, but found the first Large Coppers of the year, thereby completing a trio of colourful coppers for the week. In total, saw about three Large Coppers, all stunning males. Otherwise, butterfly highlights fell to a single High Brown Fritillary ...and another Purple-edged Copper!


On the bird front, the male Roller sits patiently, the female hiding and I presume incubating. Surely soon, the eggs will hatch and his easy-going days will be over. Other species already seem to be bouncing about with newly fledged young - Whinchats everywhere, Yellow Wagtails by the pools, Jays in the woodland. At the bigger end of the market,the heronry is a right royal din just now - the Grey Herons are about to fledge, flapping about the trees and generally squaking like there's no tomorrow!

Pictures, a couple of the Large Copper and a bit of my land, a favoured spot for butterflies.

 

[Andrew]

With the Large Copper it's 'Less is more'. Nice one.

 

[Jos Stratford]

For London Birder...

Commenting upon the scarcity of Hawfinches in his central London, our friend above said I might like to try to get a photo of the birds visiting my feeders in the garden. So, after a bit of a lie in this morning, I opened the window and shoved my camera lens out, went made a cup of tea and then came back to wait. Some minutes later, a young Great Spotted Woodpecker landed on the feeder, so took a couple of snaps and, just as I finished the tea, down came a Hawfinch.

But better for the garden though, I happened to look up to see what the Tree Sparrows were up to ...and there, sat in a plum tree, was a male Red-backed Shrike! Fairly common in the country as a whole, this is however only the third in the garden itself, so top bird. Common Redstart in the birdbath too.

Got a four day weekend now, so off out to my local patch - not expecting huge things, the temperature is climbing towards a forecasted 37 or 38 C!!! Oo, only a few months ago it was minus 34!

So, a couple of pictures from my garden...

 

[London Birder]

Jos, sorry inbox was full ....

cheers for that, very nice indeed ... that is some serious garden you have there, tea and Hawfinch, that's gotta be the way to do it ... think I'd fold under those sorts of temps, good luck on the patch.

 

[Jos Stratford]

Wilting in the sun, but fabulous temperatures. Headed down to the local patch, but couldn't be naffed to trudge around in the scorching temps, so settled for an amble about in the car, stopping at all the top butterfly spots. About twenty species today, a very good variety. Out in the meadows, still a few Heath Fritillaries, but very soon a small fritillary caught my eye - with a particularly fluttery style of flight, it was clear this was going to be a new one for me ...went dashing about the meadow until eventually it landed, sneaked up close, then off it shot! So repeated this little song and dance for about quarter an hour until I finally got in close and grabbed a few pictures ...my first Weaver's Fritillary! Sharing the meadow, a lot of quality butterflies - plenty of Pearly and Chestnut Heaths still, a couple of Scarce Coppers again and dozens of fresh Small Tortoiseshells and Red Admirals.

A little later, I cut into an area of pine forest, stopping at flower-rich clearings - Black-veined Whites still on the wing, joined by increasing numbers of Silver-washed Fritillaries. Stopped at one particular spot on the forest edge and was treated to an amazing collection of species - four species of skipper, four species of white, the first Silver-studded Blues of the year, a couple of Brimstones and yet another Weaver's Fritillary.

If one butterfly stood out today though it was Purple Emperor - loads of them! Every few minutes encountered another ...photographing them though is another matter! After the record shot of one of my steering wheel last week, thought I could do better today. Hmm, some chance, most simply went zooming through, barely pausing to take a breath, let alone landing! Then suddenly in came one - it flew directly towards me and landed on my leg! Twisted round and took a picture ...so now have two pictures, one on part of my car and one on my trousers, hardly natural habitat shots!!!


Birds? Didn't really look up very often - too busy with my nose in the flowers - but did manage to get some nice photos of the newly fledged Great Grey Shrikes and misidentified a Common Tern as a Red-footed Falcon!!! In my defence, the tern was sitting on electric wires and the last Red-footed Falcon I saw was at that very point. Anyhow, after driving half a kilometre to photo a falcon which was not, decided to return to the butterflies for the day, plenty more of them to see.

Today's selection of pictures - Large Chequered Skipper, Weaver's Fritillary, Silver-washed Fritillary and Purple Emperor (and my leg!).

 

[Jos Stratford]

Getting a bit of birds back into my birding thread, a couple of pictures from the day - a recently fledged Great Grey Shrike and a male Red-backed Shrike, both fairly common inhabitants of the local patch.

 

[Andrew]

Nice one Jos.

Just a Comma for my efforts today!

 

[London Birder]

lush ...

did better than me Andrew, Large White over Edgware Road undergroud during 2 mins silence was best I mustered

 

[lark o'dell]

nice pictures jos

 

[London Birder]

Jos man, can me and you pretend we're students and do a three month home exchange?

 

[Jos Stratford]

Jos man, can me and you pretend we're students and do a three month home exchange?

Sure thing, but do notice I only post pictures taken out of the window, rather than in the house itself ...garden and land top notch, but it sure ain't the Hilton inside 3

 

[London Birder]

Sure thing, but do notice I only post pictures taken out of the window, rather than in the house itself ...garden and land top notch, but it sure ain't the Hilton inside 3

sweet as the proverbial nut ...

what you're saying is that it ain't too David Hockney, but hey, whatever that was any good ever was?

if you like windows, you'll love my 'crib'... at leat 30

absolutely FA birdwise though ....

(that's a lie but not nearly)

 

[Jos Stratford]

Success!

A landmark day - the Rollers are breeding, they’ve got young! Without doubt, truly the event of the year for me on my land, something I have been hoping for ever since seeing a Roller fly over two years back as I pondered the purchase of the land. Everything was looking good this year, the male of last year returned and, unlike last year, managed to bring a female too. Early courtship went well and then she disappeared, I presumed into nesthole to incubate. Over the last week though, I had been getting a little worried as I hadn’t seen her for quite a while and, though I still guessed she was in her nest somewhere unknown, doubts were beginning to creep in. The male would be at his favoured spot every day, but not a peep of his missus. Had the female disappeared and left him to a solo sojourn as in the previous year?

So yesterday, as the sun scorched bird and me alike, I settled down to watch - up on the wires, down into the meadow, he was feeding well, a cracking bird. Then, a hopeful sign, off he flew purposefully towards a grove of mature trees, tried to follow him, but lost him and all too soon he was back on the wires! This grove, supporting some beautiful old trees was where I had presumed the nest would be, so I sat it out …boy did that sun start to burn! Some 20 minutes later, he again flew into the grove, but again I lost him as he flew through the trees. Still no sign of the female though! By now, having been sat under that relentless sun for longer than I wished, I decided to leave it for another day.

Today, I arrived nice and early and, within seconds, was watching a Black Stork drifting overhead, a good start to the day as this was only the second record on my land (the first being only a month ago!). Then as the heat began to build, I retreated to the relative coolness of the forest and settled into my cabin - overlooks the feeding station, but with most birds taking their mid-summer nap, the feeders are not the most exciting places just at present. Today though, two special treats - first, not enough to have them at my garden feeder, but here was a Hawfinch too! Have to say that made me smile. Then, perhaps even better, later in the day, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker decided it was time to return to the feeders. Brilliant, they have been regular winter visitors to the feeders and breed just a few hundred metres further down, but this is the first mid-summer visit to the feeders. Thereafter he was in and out all afternoon, hopefully will continue to do so til winter now. Elsewhere in the forest, things not very active, though still an Icterine Warbler singing, several late Great and Blue Tits feeding young in the boxes and, another bird I feel privileged to have on the land, the Redwings appeared with their noisy fledglings.

Anyhow, leaving that aside I was keen to get back over to the Rollers, so drove across the meadow and there was the male again in his favoured spot, no female. Started to watch, much the same as the day before, he sat on the wires and kept dropping down to catch prey in the meadows. But then it was not the same as the day before, again he flew off towards the grove (good), but low and behold, when he returned, so too did the female! Excellent, she was still here, so she must have been incubating after all. The male dropped down and caught something big and juicy, which he promptly presented to his lady friend, who then promptly flew back to the grove with it. A few minutes later, she was back, another food gift and off she went again. So repeated this several times, she was feeding young! Changed postion to get a better view into the grove and after quite a bit of effort managed to locate the tree that the Rollers were taking the food, or more to the point she was taking the food, he always gave her the food and she carted it in! Couldn’t actually see the nest hole, but not wishing to risk disturbing, left this task to another day. Quite chuffed indeed, off I went home.


PS. Butterflies not particularly abundant, a lot of Meadow Browns, a single Silver-washed Fritillary and, best of the bunch, the first second-generation Swallowtail of the summer, always a nice thing to see.


A picture of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at the feeder today, a real scruffy individual if ever I saw one!

 

[Mike Johnston]

Congrats on the Rollers Jos! Envious or what?!

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Brilliant news Jos.

 

[Julian Sykes Wildlife]

:clap: Fantastic news,

you sound like a proud father yourself, have a celebratory cigar.

Cheers Jules