Birdies

With the trees going bare its easier to bird watch now, one day last week i spotted some Long tailed tits in the Silver Birch and i ran outside with my camera:

Cutie! I also saw; Blue Tits, Great Tits, a Robin, a Dunnock, many House Sparrows, the Black Cap, two Treecreepers, a Wren and the Goldcrest!! all these birds were in the garden in the span of an hour.

Here is a Blue Tit enjoying the new bird feeder in the garden.

Kingfishers!

Last Saturday on my way to work i looked down the river that is at the end of my road and thought to myself "It would be lovely to see the kingfisher again" as the kingfisher that for many years we had been seeing on the river had not been spotted for at least two years. So i continue my trek to work, looking at the river to see if i see any other wildlife like the bank vole (or water vole?) and what do i see? a flash of blue as i had disturbed the kingfisher, paranoid that it might have been my imagination i abandon my walk to work and wander down the side of the river to where the kingfisher might have flown to, and sure enough he (or she) was there and now flown back to its original spot. I was so happy! so i walk to work with a spring in my step.

Later on in the day i am having lunch and i sit on my bench next to a river where i have seen at least two kingfishers at any one time and frequently see one flying up and down the river. I am eating lunch when i see a flash of blue go up the river, i watch for 5 mins and i see him return. Then something amazing happened, i wasnt paying too much attention to the river but i see the distinctive blue flash again but this time its not flying past me, its landing on the wall on the other side of the river opposite me!!! by this point i am wishing i had my camera now as i would have been able to get a nice photo of it, but alas i only had my mobile phone. So content with just watching him he then flies up into a tree above the river and is watching the river.He then flies out of the tree towards me and i think that he is going to sit on my wall next to me but he doesn't he dives into the water, i stand up to see the splash and him coming out of the river with a silver thing in his beak, he caught a fish! in front of me! you could not wipe the grin of my face for the rest of the day. Oh i did manage to get a photo:


Amazing yes? Bit of a Wheres Wally photo, but you can see the wall and the tree he  was sitting on and how far he was away from me.

There is the kingfisher :)

A few days ago i saw these birds on the river on my way home, looked them up in my bird book to discover they are Little Grebes, so today i went down the river the get some photos.

Butterflies

I have decided to make a list of all the butterflies (and moths) I have seen/photographed in the last 2 years:

 Aglais urticae
Small Tortioseshell

Anartia amathea 

Antheraea Pernyi
Chinese Oak Silkmoth

Attacus atlas
Atlas Moth

Battus polydamus
Gold Rim Swallowtail

Cethosia biblis
Lacewing

Cethosia biblis

Lacewing

Danaus Plexippus
Monarch

Dryas Julia
Flame

Greta oto
Glasswing/Clearwing

Heliconius charitonius
Zebra longwing

Heliconius doris

Heliconius ismenius
Ismenius Longwing

Heliconius melpomene
Postman

Heliconius melpomene

Postman

Hypolimnas antevorta

Hypolimnas Misispus

The Mimic

Idea leuconoe

Tree Nymph

Inachis io

Peacock

Kallima paralekta

Indian Leaf

Morpho Peleides

Blue Morpho

Neptis hylas

Sailor

Pachliopta kotzebuea

Papilio demoleus

Lime/Citrus Swallowtail

Papilio polytes 

Common Mormon

Papilio rumanzovia

Scarlet Swallowtail

Papilio thoas

Thoas Swallowtail

Parthenos sylvia

The Clipper

Precis atlites

Grey Pansy

Precis iphita

I believe most of these names to be accurate but some butterflies are trickier then others to identify. 

The places I have taken these photos are: Buckfast Butterflies and Otters, Studley Grange Butterfly world, New Forest Wildlife park, Marwell Zoo and my mothers allotment.

Young Robin

Whilst out feeding the rabbits i heard  a familiar bird call from the silver birch trees, went to investigate and found a juvenile robin, it wasn't disturbed by me, more curious so i ran and got my camera and thankfully it stayed long enough for me to snap some pictures

Very pleased to see this chap in my garden. The day before I had spotted a male and female Chaffinch and my mother has seen fledgling long-tailed tits!

Ducklings

Went out for a little walk with my camera along the river and took a few snaps of some cute ducklings!

 Here's one of them

Also took some photos of swans for references.

Allotment

Went to my mother's allotment last week and it was a lovely sunny day and saw many Swifts, Swallows, and Linnets. Normally see the Kestrel but didn't this time, instead we saw a Sparrowhawk:

Also saw a Peacock butterfly

Danebury Ring

I visited Danebury Ring last week, on a nice sunny day and saw quite a bit of wildlife though not much of it sat still for photos.

Dingy Skipper

Grizzled Skipper













Yellowhammer

Saw a Common Lizard, a Kestrel, lots of bunnies, and a Stoat! and i even managed to have a sit and down and do some drawing.



Me!

New Forest

On Wednesday my mother and I went for a walk in the New Forest and within 5 mins of getting there we spotted a Common Lizard!

In all the times i have been to the new forest i have never seen one before! by the end of the walk we had seen over 10!

Another one, this one was greenish.

Heard a Green Woodpecker but didnt manage to spot it, saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming on a tree right above us!

When we stopped for lunch a Common Buzzard flew really low above us and i managed to get some good photos of it!

and then the last bird we spotted was a Nuthatch, well we heard it before we saw it.