Swallowtails at Strumpshaw!

What a difference a couple of hours make! The second visit to the Fen was much more fruitful, with ridiculously close views of a number of Swallowtails around the Reception area. Paul was like a puppy with two tails!

Butterfly hunt with Paul

Paul - one of our oldest friends - makes an annual pilgrimage to Norfolk to look for Swallowtail butterflies. He lives three hours away from these scarce and engaging creatures, while there are two excellent locations within half an hour of our front door!

First stop was Strumpshaw Fen, where a walk around the usual locations proved negative: we decided to move on to Hickling NWT reserve, where I'd seen a couple yesterday. Since today was cooler, we hoped for better results: in the end we saw just a single specimen, along the raised path to Whiteslea. Paul enjoyed close views of about fifteen Common Cranes, as well as several Painted Ladies and Hairy Hawkers. A cup of tea, then a twenty minute drive back to Strumpshaw!

Green week at All Saints, Hemblington

Usually a productive and enjoyable event...

Swallowtails

Some photos of today's Swallowtails at Hickling NWT Reserve, as well as a Small Heath and a couple of Four-spotted Chasers.

Cley and Hickling: high-temperature birding!

An early start at Cley didn't produce anything desperately special, but close views of some common birds (Little Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Lesser Whitethroat etc) were very welcome.

A walk along to Babcock Hide revealed that the Avocets on Watling Water have been more successful in raising a few chicks than those on the main reserve: they didn't seem to be particularly conscientious parents, though...

A move to Hickling gave us our first views of Swallowtails this season: at least four. Other species of interest included a pair of displaying Cranes, all the usual warblers and lots of Four-spotted Chasers

Baby Blue Tits!

A family of Blue Tits has fledged in our garden (or possibly Sue & Peter's!) They are regularly visiting the suet on the feeding station in front of Linda's office window. The fine weather has brought dozens of bees (and hornets!) to the garden, including these cute little individuals on the manuka.

Sunspots

A few developing sunspot groups this lunchtime: NB! I use special filters - never look at or photograph the Sun directly!

Garden tick for the year!

While Linda and I were enjoying a glass of fizz in Sue and Peter's delightful garden, a pair of Common Terns flew across: although I had my camera, I was too slow for a photo. Happily, though, a single bird flew west over our garden today!

First quarter

A couple of photos of last night's Moon. Some people have contacted me to ask why the phase below is called a 'first quarter Moon' when it looks like a half Moon. It's quite straight forward really: as the Moon waxes (grows) from a thin crescent it reaches the stage- for the first time in its 28 day cycle - when a quarter of the surface is illuminated. As it continues in its orbit around the Earth, it reaches full Moon and then begins to wane (shrink) until we see the 'last quarter' - the western hemisphere - illuminated.

Oh go on then: a few more!

The sunset sky was totally clear and bright last night, so I couldn't resist grabbing a few more shots of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus: all four of Jupiter's Galilean moons were on show!