Tuesday 25 June 2013

A Beautiful Evening in the Sunshine

With the sun shining, little wind if any and warm temperatures, yes you are reading correctly, I drove over to Reculver after work at 5.30pm where I walked down the seawall to Coldharbour and back. The weather was superb for once and it was hard to see where the sea ended and the sky started, it was that still. Earlier in the day Chris Hindle had seen a Clouded Yellow butterfly at Reculver and I hoped that it or a few more maybe moving through the area. As I walked past the caravan park 2 Little Owls were seen sitting out in the sun and 1 Grey Partridge was seen in flight. I had not been walking for long when I caught sight of a butterfly flying along the shingle. Raising the binoculars I was pleased to see a Clouded Yellow. As they often do, it was not hanging around and continued on west until lost to view. I carried on and saw the first of 4 Painted Lady butterflies on the seawall with others seen flying west at speed. Not having my own camera back yet I decided to put Derek's Canon 10d through its paces and fired off a few shots before it flew off. The results are not too bad at all.

Painted Lady

Moving on I noted 5 Oystercatcher, 1 Pheasant, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Meadow Pipit, 6 Redshank, 4 Shelduck with one pair on the sea with 7 ducklings. There were 4 Curlew, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Little Egret, 3 Reed Bunting, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Skylark, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Yellow Wagtail and 1 Mute Swan with 6 Cygnets. A few more butterflies were noted including 1 Small Heath, 3 Common Blue whilst 1 Black tailed Skimmer was seen resting in the sun. If only we had more days like this. No doubt the weekend will be wet and windy. 

Common Blue

4 comments:

  1. Its not the camera Marc, Its the way you use it, and you know how to use it! :-)

    Hope to get a painted Lady this week myself.

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  2. Nice pics Marc, nice to pick up a Clouded Yellow too.

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  3. Beautiful butterflies, and you saw a Clouded Yellow, nice.

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  4. Lovely pics, Marc!
    Some years I can many Painted ladies, others just a few.
    They are migrants, so I guess it explains it!
    Cheers!

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