Blogger Award

Kelly Riccetti from http://redandthepeanut.blogspot.com/
has very kindly given me an award for my blogging efforts.
Thank you very much Kelly.


Kelly who lives in Cincinnati Ohio, has an infectious enthusiasm for bird watching that puts a lot of us to shame really. Her blog is full of great photographic images of birds and her sketching and art work is very professional. Kelly lists her star sign as 'Pisces' which means she is obviously a great person. {:)

I am now suppose to write seven things that others may find interesting about me. Unfortunately the things you may find interesting about me and my life I am not able to write here.

I am also suppose to pass this award on to seven other bloggers. There are a lot more than seven other bloggers that I follow and believe they should all get this award. It wouldn't be fair to only list seven, so I will pass on that as well.

Cloudy Skies

Cloudy skies on the fenland and for once they are mainly white clouds instead of the usual dark grey or black ones.


Below is the lock where I took the image at low level (a dragonflies eye view) on Monday 20th July.


In monochrome.


Two flowers that are observed along the river banks at the moment.

Indian Balsam (Glandulifera)
This is a lovely looking flower and grows to height of 2 metres. It can be found mainly along the river banks flowering from June to September. It spreads easily as it has exploding seed boxes.



Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea)
A flower that looks very nice, but not so welcome as it is poisonous to animals such as cattle and horses.


(Scheduled)

Brown Hawker Dragonfly (Female)

Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis)

The fenland dikes are good places to look for Dragonflies. I found this female Brown Hawker ovipositing on the small lock at the end of a dike. This was the same place where I took the low level photograph along the dike this week.

Tern and Dive

The Common Tern

I watched a couple of Common Terns this morning. They flew backwards and forwards along a river and every so often dived for fish. Having watched them for a while I observed that they appear to dive in the same locations along the river each time. So I positioned myself at one of these locations and waited. Using the sports setting on the camera and a 100-400mm lens, I was able to capture a few interesting shots, even though the light wasn't great at times.

I think I will try this again one day soon.

Scenes from a Cycle Ride

Gosh its not raining today, this is a change.
This prompted me to get out there on the bike for the morning.

The first and second images below are part of a fenland track which is about four miles long. As with many fenland tracks and indeed roads, they are raised above the level of the surrounding fields. This formed part of my route today.



At last I have found a Red Tail Bumble Bee (it looks more orange really, but never mind the semantics) so I decided to include a collage to celebrate.



At one point along a country lane I stopped for a drink of water. I heard the chattering of what sounded like two Whitethroats coming from a hedgerow. I think the chattering consisted mainly of expletives coming in my direction. Both birds had food in their beaks and didn't want to give away the nest position in my presence. So I took the hint, took a couple of shots and cycled on.



Common Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) Perennial
This flower can grow to a height of 75 cm, but these that I observed today on the roadside were much shorter, probably due to the position being open and flat ground. They flower from June to October.


Today's best image I could get of a butterfly was this Small Tortoiseshell.


You may recall a post the other day about a newly arrived foal with the wobbly legs. Well here he is today, not wobbly legged anymore and I am calling him "Four White Socks".


In one of the small paddocks next to "Four White Socks", there are two more new arrivals (See below) although they appear to be at least his size and one (the second of these two) may be older.



Foals legs are almost fully grown at birth, which appears to cause them a problem eating grass as until their body is fully grown, their necks are not long enough to stretch down to eat. Therefore they adopt the "Giraffe" position.


Chatting over the fence is OK.


However, there was some sharpe exchange of views between two mares as to who's fence it was though.


I was having some success with Bumble Bees and found two more variants to photograph.


This is a Dragonfly's eye view as he flies along a fenland dike.


There are many miles of these dikes or drains on the fenland. Some act as overflows from the larger rivers. All of them help to support wildlife and nature.

Dull Weather Routine

We have had some appalling weather over the last few days, a typical "English Summer". So I have posted a few images gathered during the previous week.

Mr Heron adopting his resting position in the long grass in the parkland.


A male Linnet which from the split in his underside feathers appears to have been sharing the brooding on the nest.


A female Chaffinch which when observed at certain angles can be confused with other species.


A male Greenfinch which has spotted me pointing a camera at him.


Here is that Greenfinch in the open.


Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)
I last observed this species in April. This is a new arrival for this year, unfortunately he didn't wait around for another shot.


Peacock Butterfly (Inachis io)
I did observe several of this species and I never pass up on the chance to photograph them.


Now for something a little different.

Trout (Salmo trutta)
There are two forms of Trout, the Brown Trout (shown in the two photographs below) that spend all their time in freshwater. There is also the Sea Trout which swims from the sea up into freshwater to spawn. You can just see the pinkish red spots along their sides. They measure approximately 20cm long.



The Pike (Esox lucius)
Some of my ex colleagues who are Scottish, would probably refer to this species as "Nasty wee beasties" which just about sums them up really. This one was approximately 25 cm long and just a tiddler in pike terms.

The Flowering Rush

The Flowering Rush (Botomus unmbellatus)
A very common waterside plant in the British Isles. It is classed as an invasive weed in some countries. I took these images of the flower head which when not fully open, look like small Tulip heads.

Little Egret

Occasionally on the Fenland you get the opportunity to observe the Little Egret. This is invariably from quite some distance and usually the bird takes off before you can get close enough for a reasonable photograph. I have observed four birds on one occasion, but I never got close to them. They are a wary bird and easily disturbed.

On my travels this week I was able to snatch three quick images of the bird below. Fortunately he emerged from behind a tree line flying low, unfortunately it was low enough to be obscured somewhat by the tall reeds on the waters edge. However I was pleased with the result even though it wasn't clear.

1/2000 at f6.3. 340mm. ISO400.


A relatively new arrival to southern Britain, the Little Egret has become quite common locally, particularly estuaries and inland wetlands. I have certainly observed them fairly regularly on the fenland dykes. Probably the best location to observe them are on southern estuaries.

Scenes from a Cycle Ride (Part 2)

The second of a two part post of scenes from my latest cycle ride.

I took a few of this scene looking up a hill in this field of Oilseed Rape. The sun was behind me and shining on the field, but the scene ahead (although created a dramatic image) wasn't that inviting.


A pair of Small White butterflies (Artogeia rapae) in the mating position.


Another image of my slightly wooly friends.


The beautiful and much photographed and featured Peacock Butterfly (Inachis io). In late July this species emerge from Pupa and can be seen on the wing into October, when they will hibernate over winter.

This is a male which has the much richer dark red colour than the female which appears more orange.


Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis) Bi or perennial
Taken in very dull light this Field Scabious was observed growing on the side of a road.

1/80 at f4. plus 0.67 exposure bias. 28mm. ISO 80. Spot metering.

"No - Look this way please"


The Large White Butterfly (Pieris brassicae)
These are quite numerous now, but are not known for stopping around for photo opportunities though. I snatched this one with the 70-200mm lens.


I was getting a serious "telling off" by this little Wren from a perch in a small sycamore tree. Clearly, I wasn't meant to be there.


Another of the numerous Bumble Bees observed along the route.


Seed pods of the Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca) getting ready to scatter next year's seeds.


The Five-spot Burnet (Zygaena trifolii) Wingspan 35mm
This is a day time Moth which flies July to August. There is also a similar Six Spot species.


My journey started out well with sunny weather. Later it turned really dull and there was distinct look of rain ahead of me. (see the image up the road on my previous post) It remained overcast for quite some time, but eventually brighter weather returned.
Finally a field of golden Wheat.


(Scheduled)