Venus Pool - Redshank

A wader a day..... Keeps the enthusiasm going......  and one day VP will turn up a Wood Sand for me?? I've seen several elsewhere in the County in previous years but given the number in the country at the moment, we are due one here!!

But for now, today's bird was an adult passage Redshank.....

And it was showing rather well!

In front of the main hide.....

An unuusal angle as it marched towards me!

And then treating me to nicely bristled ruffle!

I wonder what will be next?

Venus Pool - Med Gull passage

The afternoon was going nowhere a couple of Green Sandpipers, Little Egret, Kingfisher, nothing ever changes of late.....

And then a 30 strong group of Lesser Black-backed Gull drifted in, closely followed by a 100+ group of  Black-headed Gulls. Yessssss something to check through at last - and it didn't take long to find a juvenile Mediterranean Gull lurking amongst them :-)

If you look closely in the first pic, the Med is sporting a green ring but sadly it always seemed to be a hollow or behind something before moving on to the back of the island and out of view....

Another 20 minutes elapsed and yet another wave of 30+ Lessers dropped in plus another 50 Black-heads, crikey nothing ever happens at VP on the gull front! And a scour through the newcomers revealed another two Med Gulls - these were second summer birds!

Here's the first strutting his stuff...

And for the disbelievers who think all Gulls look the same :-)

Rain was falling now and something helpful spooked some of the Gulls....

Cos as they landed, there's the second 2nd Summer bird and that was pretty obvious as a red ring is visible!

I fired off a few speculative shots and luckily, the letters 'PPRT' are clearly visible!

 Meanwhile, the juvenile had now relocated to the middle island....

And was about to have his letters 'ASJC' taken :-)

Best session I've had at VP in a long time and once I get the ringing details back from Euring, I'll update the blog......

Venus Pool - Green Sandpiper

Up to two Green Sandpipers are now a daily occurrence and with patience, they can come close! Shame about the light but here's an encounter from today.....

I can see you!

In this short sequence, the sun nearly peeked through!

Picking small insects.....

And then once in a while......

A nice (but very small) juicy worm!

So let's have some more interesting waders eh?

Scarce Blue-tailed Damsel - aurantaica!!

I suppose it's the 'collector' in me..... Having seen and photographed all of the County breeding odonata, there are still one or two colour forms that have eluded me! An annual event has been to seek out Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly on Titterstone Clee and it's always been a success but I've never managed to photograph the very earliest female form! This year was harder work than normal, the quarry looked as though it had been in a war - off road bikes / quad bikes? Who knows but the Damsel habitat was in a mess!

Two hour of trudging along tyre tracks and apart from cracking views of emergent Common Hawkers  (coming separately) plus female Common Darter I had only seen Common Blue, Blue-tailed and Azure Damselflies.....

Then in a flash of orange, the day was transformed! You can't really miss one of these? For such a rare and sometimes 'difficult' Damsel, you just know with this form, exactly what you've got 5 metres away! Ischnura pumilio aurantiaca to be precise and the photo collection is now complete!

The Common Hawkers weren't bad either - offering close up temptation......

Titterstone Clee - Hawkers emerging

I've photographed quite a few emerging species but never caught up with Common Hawkers - until today! A whirrr of wings in the margin of a pool alerted me (like no other sound) to the unseen presence..... And then suddenly it's so obvious but I'd already walked straight past it!

Common Hawker female coming up first and this was a beautiful lavender blue colour form - she will be even smarter once those colours develop.....

There were one or two exuvia about but nice to get the likely origin of this hawker in the frame!

Going in closer - these are liberties you would never normally be able to take with this species!

And ultra close - all hand held :-)

The legacy of a life spent underwater the past two years?

A (female) Common Darter break....

And then this sad sight is a male Common Hawker, vainly trying to get airborne with wings horribly fused and mishapen. It could flutter a short distance but looks destined to perish?

But, wings apart - still a beautiful creature!

Couldn't resit getting in close to those eyes....

Probably the last time I will ever be so close to one?

And just to demonstrate just how perilous the habitat the can be - many are drowned on emergence and later, it's so easy to end up in a sticky web!

Come into my parlour.......

Venus Pool - Little Egret in a ruffle!

With not a lot happening, always worthwhile keeping the shutter from seizing up and watching the antics of the Little Egret? Here it comes.....

And Splaaassshhh.... In amongst the fry!

I was focussing interest on the droplets :-)

Clearly ruffled by something - you can stamp your feet all you like!!

Let's see if we can arrange all these feathers a bit better?

Yeah, that feels better - got whatever it was out of the system....