Digibinning

I have done a bit of dibbling with what is technically known as digibinning. This is the combination of ye olde digitale camerae with a pair of binoculars (or rather one of the barrels) to take snaps. It is basically an alternative, freehand version of digiscoping. Having got a new fancy-Dan pair of Zeiss FL 7x42 bins, I thought it was worth having a try. Here are some of my few efforts with the combination fo the Zeiss and my Nikon Coopix 4500, plus one (the Bullfinch) using RSPB FG 8x32 bins. So without further ado, here are:

Black-tailed Godwit, Titchwell, Norfolk, 24.7.04.

Greylag Goose, Cley, Norfolk, 27.8.04.

Banded Demoiselle, wildflower centre, north Norfolk, 30.7.04.

Juvenile Bullfinch, Ferry Meadows, 18.8.04.

More Southey Wood insects

I am irresistible to insects at the mo' (though I hasten to add there are no flies on me). This Pyrausta aurata moth landed on my skin and thought it would help itself to a tasty snack


The moth was at Southey Wood (16.8.04) in a patch of flowers which attracted Holly Blue and Peacock butterflies as well as a good population of what I believe are Dark Bush Crickets.

Female Dark Bush Cricket.

Male Dark Bush Cricket.

Check out the foot on the above. It appears to have a little 'stabiliser' to help spring in the air?.
Further up the track, I managed to get some photos of a few butterflies, including...
...Painted Lady
and...

...Brimstone
We also found a patch with literally hundreds of migrant hawkers as you can see from this photograph

As the sun went behind a cloud, the numbers of settled Common Darter increased allowing a few snaps.


Common Darters, Southey Wood, Cambs, 16.8.04

Blakeney wildlife

One of the places we took a trip to while up in Norfolk a few weeks back was Blakeney Point. We got on one of the several seal-watching boats that sail out of Morston Quay and head up for the point. On the way we were smothered in a huge wave of migrating hoverflies that hit the east coast. One of the local guys running the trip was very pleased with his pile of hoverfly corpses at his feet. Needless to say Weedon's World of Nature strongly disapproves of this behaviour.
Blakeney is an excellent place for close-up views of...

...Common (Harbour) Seals and a few of the larger...

...Grey (Atlantic) Seals.
There is also a Sandwich Tern colony on the Point.

Some of the constant stream of boats got a wee bit too close to the seals and terns for my taste, but the creatures mostly ignore the tourist visitors. We got an hour or so on-shore and bustled about (though not near the seal and tern areas). My children went and looked at a dead seal (not photographed), while I tried to photograph Grayling butterflies. Here was my best shot.

I strongly recommend anyone who is up in North Norfolk to go on one of these trips to have a good old gander at the seal colony.

The sandpiper and the fox

On Sunday (15.8.08) I was slogging around the lakes at Deeping Lakes LWT reserve (aka Welland Bank Pits), near Deeping St James, Lincs, from about 7am to 8.30am. The lake/small pits known by some of the locals as Phase 1 (I think it was the first pit scraped out in the new complex) has had a reasonable share of waders recently so I was trudging round there, scanning constantly. I was just looking at a group of three Common Sandpipers when a fox appeared and walked round, ignoring me.
It was some way off and I was downwind so I watched it exploring aound the edge of the pit looking for grub and eventually hop through a hole in the fence out of sight.
So I got on with digiscoping the sandpipers for several minutes – and this is the best I could muster.

Suddenly, the fox appeared just by the sandpipers (they were surprisingly unbothered), and stayed just long enough for me to digiscope it, instead. Here is Reynard noticing I am there. He reappeared a few more times during my walk, but this was my only photo.

Dr Doolittle?

This lunchtime (16.8.04) Katie Bogbumper Fuller braved the teaming hordes of 'gentlemen cruisers' (that's for an entirely different sort of website, I'm sure) at Southey Wood, not far from Peterborough, to look for birds and insects (and hope to see nothing untoward going on between the trees).
We'd been photographing butterflies including Painted Lady and Brimstone (more of that later) as well as the next generation of Large Skipper, and we were surrounded by masses of Common Darter and billions of Migrant Hawker dragonflies.
I was just trying to photograph a Common Darter when it got scared, left its flower head and instead went for the safety of Weedon's World of Nature, landing on my trigger finger.
Here are Katie's photos of the darter on my hand - with me unable to photograph my target...

Early morning, Deeping Lakes

Last week, I had a very foggy early morning at Deeping Lakes (aka Welland Bank Pits), south Lincs. The best wildlife on offer included spiders' webs and some sleepy, dew-covered Common Blue Damselflies (such as this male).

From the archives... No.1

Looking through some of my old pics, I found this Alpine Accentor scratching the back of its head. It was taken on 11.6.04 at the Picos de Europa, Spain.

New garden butterfly

Once more proving the value of ragwort for attracting insects, I was delighted to find a new species of butterfly in our Peterborough garden last Friday (6.8.04). This Small Copper (one of my favourite species) takes the garden tally to 18 species.

Biscay whale-watching

Last weekend I was guiding with my friend Rob Still (with a fantastic group of people) on a whale-watching and seabirds trip with The Company of Whales across Biscay. The ferry the Pride of Bilbao heads out from Portsmouth to Bilbao and back over four days. We had an awesome trip with record breaking diversity of cetacean species seen (13 species), more than 100 Fin Whales and some exceptionally rare species seen. For the full trip report (and how to get on one of these brilliant trips) follow the links though the www.companyofwhales.co.uk website.
In summary, in more than 50 encounters we saw:
Fin Whale, 107
Minke Whale, 3
Pygmy Sperm Whale, 3
Sperm Whale, 5
Northern Bottlenose Whales, 4
Cuvier's Beaked Whale, 5,
Killer Whale, 1
Pilot Whale, 26,
Bottle-nosed Dolphin, 190
Risso's Dolphin, 8
Common Dolphin, 160
Striped Dolphin, 100,
Harbour Porpoise, 12
We also saw a few Little Shearwaters and about 20 Cory's Shearwaters, loads of huge tuna and about 12 Ocean Sunfish.
In Spain, we walk up a hill above the port of Santurtzi. It's great for wildlife and we saw quite a few Red-backed Shrikes and the odd Wryneck, Fan-tailed Warblers and the like. We also had a few invertebrate treats, including Clouded yellow Butterfly and some big, scary Wasp Spiders. Here are the best pics I took on the trip:

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike, Santurtzi, Spain (9.8.04).


Clouded Yellow, Santurtzi, Spain (9.8.04).


The magnificent Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi, Santurtzi, Spain (9.8.04).


The rear end of a Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi, Santurtzi, Spain (9.8.04).


Yes they are big, hairy and scary! Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi, Santurtzi, Spain (9.8.04).

Common Darter

On 7.8.04, I trotted up to Baston and Langtoft pits with Katie the Bogbumper. There were no birds worthy of mention so we dabbled in insects, courtesy of the wildflower meadows of Nick Watts at his Grummit's scrape.
Here is a taster of some of things we snapped – the rather smart head of a teneral Common Darter dragonfly. Check out those compound eyes!

Sammy

This is Sammy the Black-winged Stilt from Titchwell (24.7.04). I don't know who gave this bird his name, but he has been there since the extinction of the dinosaurs and some have poured scorn on his wild-bred credentials. But, who cares? Enjoy him while you can, is what I say.

Punk heron

This young Grey Heron was posing outside a hide at Cley, Norfolk, last week, so I thought I'd snap it (27.7.04).

Lunch at Swaddywell

Katie Bogbumper Fuller and I had a quick lunchtime dash around Swaddywell pit (not far from Peterborough) today (4.8.04). Of the butterflies, Small Heaths were present in good numbers, and we also saw Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Small Copper, Holly Blue and Essex Skipper.
Other insects included Ruddy Darter, Migrant Hawker and Black-tailed Skimmer among the drags, plus Blue-tailed, Emerald and Common Blue Damsels.
Birds included a family of Goldcrests and a few Blackcaps (enjoying the blackberry crop) plus a calling Tree Sparrow (this site is one of the best in the area for this locally-scarce species).
I only came away with a couple of satisfactory pics.

Small Heath butterfly.


Male Ruddy Darter. This insect had been attached to a female for some time, and soon after this shot darted at lightning speed to follow the female when she returned to the vicinity.

Digger wasps

We visited the grounds of Felbrigg Hall, near Cromer, Norfolk, last week (29.7.04). Along one of the tracks were many holes of digger wasps (solitary wasps) in close association. I reckon there were at least three species involved, but it was hard to photograph the speedy blighters as they dashed into their holes carrying paralysed prey and dashed out again.

Digger wasp nests in sandy soil along a path.


A digger wasp, Cerceris sp., (perhaps C. arenaria) approaches its nest carrying prey.

One of the larger ones, however, was getting a bit knackered and dropped some of its prey, a small solitary bee. I say some of its prey, as it was resting on the ground, still holding another insect in its legs, with which it eventually flew off.

Small bee dropped by a Cerceris sp. near the nest hole.


Cerceris sp.resting after dropping prey.


The Cerceris sp. was still dragging another insect as it left the area.


Cerceris sp.having a look out of its hole pre-departure.


One of the smaller digger wasps on the site. I don't know the species?

August's Bird Watching Magazine

August's issue of Bird Watching is a four-mags-in-one special. The whole mag has a fresh new look and in addition to the pull-out Go Birding mag (a guide to ten new birding sites each month) has another pull-out, the Showguide of this year's Birdfair and a cover-mounted Digiscoping Made Simple magazine.
The latter contains loads of excellent digiscoping advice, and features some photos by Mike 'Weedon's World of Nature' Weedon himself (and some of the other folk listed in the links on the right)!
The main mag also features (on the inside of the front cover) a full page photo of a family Great Tits living in a gatepost (which sounds a little like a Four Yorkshire Tits sketch...), also by me.
Buy it in a WHSmith near you, or subscribe by following the link on the right.

Great Tit babies, one day before fledging, Baston and Langtoft pits, Lincs, 19.6.04. There are nine in the photo, though the next day there were just three, and one was dead (possibly the bird in the centre here). This photo was taken without flash on a slow shutter speed (so as not to scare the poor blighters too much).