Venus Pool - Pied Flycatcher!!

He must be 'lost' Pied Flycatchers are as scarce as Hen's Teeth at Venus Pool and this was my first, a long awaited Patch tick... Well done Simon Twigger and thanks for the heads up!! Just wished he had stayed longer in the catkins!

He did come a little closer...

And another insect bites the dust...

You little beauty!

Thank you for stopping by!

Venus Pool - Early Colletes Orgy time!

I never turn down the prospect of an interesting insects or two and todays adventure was to venture amongst literally 10's of 1,000s of Early Colletes mining bee (Colletes cunicularius) at Venus Pool...

Here's a male which made up most of the numbers...

Plus a sought after female, noticeably larger and quite easy to pick out amongst the smaller males. Problem is, once detected, the hordes of males pounce!!

Here's a party just getting started...

Bee upon bee until the mating cluster reaches a 'climax' :-) She is somewhere in the heart of the scrum of the scrum!

There was also a couple of gatecrashers... probable Common Furrow Bee (Lasioglossum calceatum or albipes?) minding his own business...

And this male Andrena species possibly A. subopaca)

I tried my hand with a short video which captures but doesn't quite convey the amazing scene we witnessed!

Many thanks to insect guru Nigel Jones for his help with the IDs!!

Bombylius major - Bee-fly take 1

I get   Bee-flies (Bombylius major) in the garden every year but I'm usually not there to see them! Lockdown has its advantages... For take one, I was content to capture them when stationary, which doesn't happen very often!

The dark leading edge to the wing is the identifying feature but realistically this is the only species likely to be found here... 

The lance like proboscis may look menacing but it's simply a feeding tube.

Seen here, drinking nectar from this flower of Ipheion uniflorum (which was a 'go to' plant for them). I normally weed these all out but a few clumps are most welcome now!

They are easily disturbed and spend much of their time flying from flower to flower, 'take two' will concentrate on this..

On this day (Jan 21st)... 2013 - White-fronts, GWT and Redshank in snow!

This flashback #Onthisday in 2013 was an incredible session featuring White-fronted Goose, Green-winged Teal and Redshank all in the snow!

Quite a session at Polemere today, it's rare for me to stay more than 20 mins and I ended up there for five hours! It will probably take 5 days to go through all the images and I'm up to me eyes with talks and other things but keep looking back.... there are plenty more images to come!

The skulking Green-winged |Teal decided to skulk no more - maybe due to the fox having a nap near it's usual haunt :-)

Now that's what I call not skulking !

A Redshank was showing particularly well too (when it wasn't hidden by the hedge!)

Underlit quite nicely from the snow.

Not an everyday sight!

Again, there's more.... these conditions don't occur very often but are worth every minute spent out in them!

Saving the best until last. I couldn't have dreamt that the Teal would be upstaged but unbelievably... it was!! My serious 'Shropshire' bogey goose was about to get cooked - not just by one but two little stunners :-)

Yes, County tick and Tunnock's teacake down the hatch after I'd decided to scan the Geese in the field adjacent to the horse paddock. First one.... then another, smaller Grey Goose with distinctive barring on the belly, eventually heads popping up and yesssss - White fronts!

Many more to sort but here's a couple to be going on with.....

Eventually they flew the short distance down to the water....

Plus a bit of foraging in the snow....

What a seriously good day!!

On this day (Jan 18th)... 2011 - Waxwings!

On this day (January 18th 2011) I spent my lunch break photographing Waxwings!!

Talk about being in the right place at the right time! I was just leaving work for lunch when I got a text reporting 'Waxwings at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital' the previous day. Now for those of you who don't know where I work, my office is within 200m of where they were seen! 

Walking to the car, what should fly overhead.... a small flock of Waxwings, eventually at least a dozen and quite obliging they were too! They were feeding on rose hips, quite astonishing to watch these giant fruits being forced down 

Down it goes...... 

The digestion phase was carried out on the small trees nearby and quite a change to have one or two on the same 'level'.....

 

They were pretty close too! 

A final burst was reserved for one bird nicely perche with a distant grassy bank behind. Gone are the distracting tangle of twigs and branches normally encountered.... 

Wonder if I'll ever tire of them?

On this day (Jan 17th)... 2010 - Black Kite!

 On January 17th 2010, I was in search of the 2010 Black Kite at Gigrin Farm...

A late morning diversion for one of my bogey birds - Bean Goose, turned out to be another Runner Bean! Or even a 'has bean' with not even a Canada in sight - just a flock of Mute Swans on the fields by Baskerville Hall near Hay on Wye.... Onwards to Gigrin farm then and surely the Black Kite wouldn't disappoint? Following the cold snap, Red Kites are present here in the 100's and the biggest problem for photography would be isolating individual birds out from the crowd? The feeding frenzy began - even as the meat was unloaded!! 

 
Whilst the Black Kite was my ultimate aim, you just couldn't ignore the impressive sight of 100's of Red Kites diving and feeding some 50m away! 

Always nice to see the upperwing seen here to contrast with one particular Gigrin bird..... 

A very pale 'White' Red Kite - a partly leucistic bird - not as pale as some clones but by far the easiest bird to pick out.....

 

Then at last, it all came good - a one and only chance to nail the Black Kite - a quick burst as it collected some food before disappearing over the back of the hides.... 

  

It did return later but by now the light had gone and very difficult to capture against the milky white sky.... 

  
A bonus shot in one of the trees adjacent to the feeding station to end the day!!

 

On this day (Jan 16th)... 2014 - Yellow-legged Gulls!

January normally means Gull watching but I'll have to be content with previous posts for now! Depite being relatively common locally (Telford) their 'smartness' always stands out...

Still no white-winger on offer but a creditable 5 Yellow-legged Gulls (3 ad / 2 3rd w) in a frantic 'in/out' pre-roost wash today! I managed to pause the scan to catch three of them.....

Two adults....

Plus a 3rd Winter....

Classy gulls which still stand out amongst the hordes of now  'white-headed' Herring Gulls!