Friday 10 August 2012

Lesser Emperor - Round two.

This afternoon I seem to have managed the impossible. I got a picture of the Lesser Emperor which was again frequenting Radipole today. Its appearances were rather sparse today as they were yesterday and opportunities to photograph it lasted roughly three seconds each time but this was result!

Well you can at least see what it is... just!

A few moths pics

As sort of promised yesterday, here are a few moth pictures.
Jersey Tiger is a regular in the trap at this time of year; in fact there were four in the trap this morning.

Willow Ermine from yesterday. First record at Radipole which usually just means that someone’s not managed to ID one before but this could be an immigrant rather than a local. Saying that, the ermines are a tricky group to ID so hope I’m right!

Caught this species last night though this photo was taken back in Wales about 5 years. It imitates birds poo which is a pretty good way of stopping birds from eating you! Its a Chinese Character by the way.

One final one, not caught locally but one for any mothers who have the time to read my garble to ponder over. Picture not especially sharp as it was taken indoors on a rainy day.

Thursday 9 August 2012

It's been a month but I'm back!

This is the first post for a while but think of the last month like some sort of summer holiday or something. It’s been rather quiet on the bird front and works been rather eventful but today I immersed myself back into the life of a naturalist. No, I didn’t strip off and head for the beach (that a naturist!) instead I went ringing which was rather dire to say the least. Every year we monitor Radipole Lake for Aquatic Warbler which in the past has proved worthwhile. However the last few years have seen something of a lull in records so my hope was that I can end this Aquatic drought. A session this morning saw just seven birds caught (non of which were Aquatic Warbler obviously) which is a lot less than what you’d expect for the time of year. Hopefully things will pick up!
Got back from ringing and got stuck in the moth trap where the first Jersey Tiger of the season obliged. As well as that there were plenty of other things so see including Radipole’s first Willow Ermine. Will possibly add photo’s another day.
Then headed off to work down at the Radipole visitor centre where the day really went crazy. My first and Radipole’s first Lesser Emperor appeared in front of me whilst standing on the visitor centre bridge! Couldn’t quite believe it at first and after blurting out several swear words I managed to explain to the people next to me that I wasn’t mad, I had just found a rather rare Dragonfly!
A rather neat little twitched developed (three of us!) but it remained elusive for several hours much to the frustration of some! I didn’t have my camera and nobody else managed a photo which leaves me with a slight dilemma. Should I steal one of the internet?? Nah... I won’t bother.