Venus Pool - Little and Large

The day ended with a Little Egret dropping in at Venus Pool. Presumably the same bird that was seen the previous day upstream of Atcham bridge.....








One of the resident Herons took exception to the intrusiuon and this big guy tried to see off the little one - it didn't work - the Egret ended up roosting on the island!






The coming week is to be spent up in Sunderland where Gemma is swimming in the 'Nationals'. Probably no time for birding but who knows......

Berrington and Venus Pool - Hawkers galore

Ospreys passing through and some good migrants turning up on the East coast signal a return to better birding! Not that I will be having any of that for a short 'while' - while the car is throwing up orange 'DO NOT DRIVE ME' warnings! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Dragons and Damsels are past their best now but the 'later' species are on the wing plus a few golden oldies so I spent much of the day hawking Hawkers.....

Venus Pool kicked off with a gorgeous male Southern Hawker. He never stopped flying all the time I was watching, so it had to be flight shots! Must admit to being pleased with these......












A courting couple of Common Darters were performing outrageously!






Whilst a rather ragged male Brown Hawker was sitting on the fence.....







An aging female Black-tailed Skimmer in similar pose, (Honest - I didn't nail her to the fence!) then off to Berrington....






Quite a few Banded Demoiselles on the wing, this one playing peekaboo.






And then, the highlight of the day - the most obliging immature male Migrant Hawker! The dots along the abdomen are lilac and will mature to clear blue. Forgive a bit of overindulgence.

The portrait.....








The side view.








And getting right up close.....






sooooooo close......






The last few were real frame fillers, a magic Migrant!

Berrington Pool - OSPREY!

I was just about to call it a day - it was 4.21 precisely (I know because that's the first shot I took of a large raptor heading my way) By the time I'd got the camera settings out of Dragonfly mode - and realised it was an OSPREY - I'd missed the very brief key moment - he was over my head and about to dive!








He dived immediately but I couldn't lock focus on the water from where I was standing due to vegetation, emerged fishless and then flew over towards the 'Top Pool'. I wasn't impressed by witnessing one of the best rear views I've had of an Osprey....








He hovered, dived (out of view) into the Top Pool and that was the last I saw of him....

Venus Pool - A happy ending???

Low cloud and a miserable start spelt possibe waders??? A morning session at Venus Pool turned into a test of patience or patient waiting for something that didn't happen, it wasn't a happy ending......

Not many happy endings for the fish population of VP, If the Cormorants don't hoover them up or the Herons and Kingfishers don't grab them then they might end up as tasty Grebe fodder.

Little ones down the hatch....








Toying around with medium ones.....






With junior struggling to gulp this one down!






Get you hankies ready? One of the saddest sights I've seen was about to appear in my viewfinder however.....

Nice, I thought - a Sand Martin doing a Kingfisher impression? This poor little soul was clearly in distress though!







He could fly, only as far as the small island where adult birds proceeded to feed him....

Are you OK?










Hard work this, catching flies for two.....








He had to fly again but then I guess you would, the moment before a Greylag Goose stomps on you.....






I did assume I'd never see the sickly Sand again. He didn't look as though he would survive the day whatever? There was to be happy ending though.... the following morning......

I spotted a woman in the car park at VP, carrying a yellow box with holes in it - intrigued, I asked her what she's got and she asked me where she could access the water? I showed her the access behind the feeder station and still intrigued I waited for the contents to be released...

And sat there, would you believe..... in the palm of her hand was the very same Sand Martin!! Someone had collected him the previous afternoon, collapsed and after a night in the Cuan House Wildlife rescue centre plus a thorough drying out and rehydration, he was as right as rain and shot off to join his family.....






Ahh..... now that's what I call a happy ending....

Venus Pool - A wader a day....

It isn't much to ask for and excluding Lapwing or LRP, each day seems to turn something up. Tuesdays bird was a nice Black-tailed Godwit still hanging on to summer plumage.








Thursday evening provided a Greenshank, first one for me at VP this year although I have seen them elsewhere in Shropshire.....








What we need is something far more exciting.....

Venus Pool - More Arachnophilia

A Green Sandpiper on the middle island was the sum total of interest on the VP bird front so with Yvonne (keen?) to see our eight legged celebrities, a search for the Wasp Spiders was convened.

There's other species on the reserve of course. Some with short legs.






Some with long legs.






and some with long long legs.....






You need to get your eye in! We had walked up the stretch of grass verge favoured by the Wasp Spiders and eventually found one - retracing our steps we found fourteen females! Plus a couple of tiny males cowering nearby!

Here's the typical habitat......






Come into my parlour....






Step a little closer.....






The happy couple? Will you take this very large female to be your.......






Erm.... is that the remains of her last 'fling'?? Or....Phew, maybe it's just the remains of her old 'cast' off body as she gets BIGGER? If so, this is the one time the man in her life can mate without too much fear of being eaten - her jaws may not have hardened off enough! Nervous times though!






Ladies, next time you make love with your husband/partner/boyfriend, please resist the urge to consume him afterwards! It just isn't nice and is likely land you in trouble with the law but for these little creatures it's just part of the 'act'.






On a general note, the British Arachnological Society may have to rethink the 'hardiness' status of this particular species. Survival is clearly not in doubt despite getting through the coldest Winter for years and temperatures plummeting to -14'C. This is one tough little spider......

Next stop Llanymynech cliffs and hopes of a butterfly or two and who knows what birds may be lurking?

Llanymynech - Hummer and Club

A shower or two failed to put a dampener on this 'interesting' session which culminated in two photographic 'firsts'!!
Impressive start on the bird front too with by the far best population of Spotted Flycatcher, I've witnessed before. There were almost certainly double figure birds present and from one vantage point we could be sure of nine individuals! Getting pictures was another matter as they were catching flies (and even butterflies!) quite high up the cliffs and feeding some to youngsters.






A flock of 14 Crossbills calling loudly went over too, what an entry!

Hopes of either Fritillary species weren't helped by the rain but it is late in the season and only hope now is for a second hatch? There were numerous Common Blue with the odd 'brown job' merely female one and the same....






Small Copper were the next most plentiful....






And then Small Heath.....






All this paled into insignificance with the arrival of a fantastic little find, initially seen hovering over the short turf, then zipping here and there from plant to plant - a Hummingbird Hawkmoth! One of nature's perfect little machines, the wings are proven to beat at roughly 80 times per second. Now that's fast and no wonder my initial attempts to photograph the little blighter ended up - occasioanlly 'wingless'!










I opted for shutter priority, always a compromise as the depth of field was soon compromised but at 1/2000 sec, a little bit of wing detail was possible. Please be aware, these are all flight shots, the moth never landed but simply hovered in front of likely sources of nectar.










I say 'likely sources' as not a single image revealed that very long proboscis used to collect nectar whilst hovering (you won't hear me complaing too loudly!)

The Hummer was a photographic first and the second one of the day (about to come) was an even bigger surprise! I've bemoaned not scouring the Severn in May for Common Club-tail and all hope had faded of getting a shot this year. Lucky Jim isn't lucky for nothing and when what I initially though was a Hawker dropped into the grass nearby, I couldn't quite believe my eyes! A pristine female Common Club-tail and true to form, miles away from it's origins! Difficult to see but it actually has a small fly in it's jaws.......






Considering how late it is in the season, this species shouldn't really be in flight still but what a fresh specimen! It flew up in a tree and a few shots using the 500mm lens were possible.....








These images form the final chapter in my quest for Odontata breeding species in Shropshire. You'll have to visit the Shropshire Birder website to check out the Odonata gallery (going live in the next couple of days) for the 25 species of Dragons and Damsels I've seen locally and which have given me so much pleasure, seeking them out this year. If they leave you cold, I'll be back on the trail of birds very soon (when there are some about!)......