Badger at sunset

Long-winged Coneheads, Great Fen, Cambs

I am 53 years old and my hearing range has declined over the last few years. I first noticed it with Roesel's Bush Crickets, and the fact that I could only hear them with my right ear. But these coneheads are even higher pitched it seems. I had to get pretty close and I could just about hear them with my right ear. 19-year-old Jasmine though there were several more present in the area when I could just about hear one! Soon the world will appar cricket free to my ears! Not yet, though...

Odd kite, Great Fen, Cambs, 28.7.18

This heavily moulting kite was feeding on and flying around the Great fen, Cambs, on Saturday, 28.7.18. Plumage-wise it had a decent amount of the brown plumage associated Black Kite, including a cold brown tail; and lacked the orange colours of Red Kite. In flight, though, it looked like a Red Kite in terms of structure and flight style (including the long forked tail, the long, tapering wings, with one fewer primary than would be on a Black Kite; and deep languid wing beats). So, it appears to be an anomalously coloured Red Kite. Apparently, this is not the bird which had been reported as a Black Kite in the same locality in the previous few days (which was not a heavily moulting bird). However, it is just the sort of oddly coloured bird to potentially lead the unwary astray.

More Badger parade action

Evening Badger snuffles

Roe Deer family, Nene Washes

Long-legged wading birds, Nene Washes

Cattle Egret (top right, just left of a Grey Heron) hiding in plain sight in a feeding frenzy involving at least 163 Little Egrets and 100 Grey Herons

Meanwhile, this young Spoonbill was hanging out with three Great White Egrets (one shown here) and many more Little Egrets. Spoonbill is species 182 for my PBC area year list.

The ginger Cattle Egret (top bird) on the evening of Saturday, 14 July

Insects at Castor Hanglands

Brimstone butterflies

Purple Hairstreak

Ruddy Darter

Purple Emperors

Singing White-spotted Bluethroat

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You may not hear it on these crude recordings, but the bird threw in identifiable mimicry of Swallow, Greenfinch, Green Sandpiper and Water Rail, plus other sounds that resembled the chirping of crickets.

Baby Roe Deer: 'Bambi'

Green-winged Teal, Deeping Lakes LWT, Lincs

A self-found tick for me, this lovely drake was a bit of a surprise yesterday evening. It is the first Green-winged Teal I have seen in the PBC area since 2010 when John Saunders found one for the second year running at Maxey pits. Prior to that, GWTs were almost annual and it seems likely that we were seeing returning birds each year (as the Maxey bird probably was), rather than new birds each year. Anyhow, that takes my PBC year list up to 178.
Incidentally, in addition to the obvious 'vertical' white flank lines (and the absence of a Teal's 'horizontal' scapular line, this drake GWT also showed: the more subtle, pale lines bordering the dark green face line (much clearer on typical Teal, particularly the upper line); what appeared to be a more pointed rear to the head (I am not sure if this is a consistent feature); and a paler undertail region (pale buff rather than yellow; again this may be individual variation). The views were not close enough to analyse the density of the vermiculations of the 'grey' flanks.