Saturday 28 September 2013

Dragons and Warblers!

With Yellow browed Warblers falling out of the skies in the north of the country by the hundreds I was hopeful that I may be able to connect with one myself at Reculver. One had been seen yesterday so they are slowly making their way south. I started off the morning leaving home at 5.45am where I had a brief drive around in the dark until it got light. I managed to see or hear 4 Grey Partridge, 6 Red legged Partridge and 1 Little Owl. I then made a visit to the caravan park where I noted 1 Goldcrest, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Whinchat, 1 Stonechat and a few Meadow Pipit passing over. With no Yellow browed Warbler success here I then called in at Bishopstone Glen where one had been heard earlier. Thankfully it wasn't too windy and a look and listen hear provided 4 Chiffchaff, 4 Siskin, 1 Redwing, 1 Sparrowhawk and 1 Yellow browed Warbler was heard calling 3 times but went unseen. I was joined by Julian and Alex Perry where we listened again and I managed to hear it call twice more but again it went unseen. Hopefully the next few weeks will provide a few more sightings of this species and maybe a photo opportunity. A quick look around the towers after produced 55 Oystercatcher, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker and 5 Skylark and I ended the session just south of Reculver where I spent some time photographing dragonflies. Nice to see they are still on the wing and I managed to note c10 Migrant Hawker with a few photos obtained as well as 5 Common Darter and 6 Common Blue Damselfly. I was surprised to see 1 Willow Emerald Damselfly on the wing and this provided a few more shots in the nice light. As I made my way to the car 1 Kingfisher was seen. A pleasant session with the target species noted and probably my best effort so farof a Migrant Hawker in flight. 


 Common Darter


 Migrant Hawker

Willow Emerald Damselfly

6 comments:

  1. Fingers crossed one of those YBW make sit onto my patch next week Marc :-)

    Nice work with the Migrant Hawker in flight, a real challenge for the Camera, and a difficult bit of action to capture

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  2. Mmmmm... I like... very much!!
    Brilliant pics Marc, well worth being published... you know where! ;-)
    Darter's flights are much more difficult to achieve that Hawker's, I am very impressed!
    Keep well!

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