Bugboys mission

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, it was sat under a Holly bush so I suspect it was looking for any berries that had so far escaped being foraged
Thanks David, fortunately there wasn't anyone around to see me get a booty, no one else was stupid enough to attempt the path I was on

February 2021

20th. The first day of proper springtime weather fell on my weekend off which is nice . Epping Forest was the destination and thankfully the forecast actually panned out. There were two missions for the day, kick my butterfly season off and to not get another booty!

Most of the small birds had returned to the relative safety of the canopy so were more heard than seen today but a couple of Ring-necked Parakeets were feeling the Spring. Out on Conaught Water, which just 7 days ago was frozen over completely, a pair of Gooseander had finally arrived for the winter. Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk (or was it a Goshawk…?) drifted periodically overhead and there was just a small flock of Redwing seen today.

I was surprised to see a Muntjac Deer out in the open but to be fair, he wasn’t too happy about the situation himself. There were lots of dog walkers out today and in his desperation to find some cover he ran across the path a few feet in front of me, his hindquarters failing when he hit the main path and nearly going head over heels, to find some bramble to hide in. Here he is mid-flight as he came hurtling towards me!

Half an hour later Spring officially arrived, a male Brimstone fluttering incessantly around, already investigating anything pale. He never landed even when cloud obscured the sun but it really didn’t matter, plenty of time for the closeups, for now I was just happy to see him .

And to cap the day off I also successfully navigated the flooded areas without sinking up to my knees again, a successful day all round .

On the 21st I risked an afternoon on Walthamstow Marshes, risked because it’s become rather busy since the start of the pandemic at the weekends. The sun did come out in spits and spots later in the afternoon but I feel it was to little to late this early in the season to tempt out a butterfly from it’s slumber.

As I said the place has become a lot busier of late and the paths have taken a real beating with all the extra foot fall. They became well worn during the summer and now with many people thinking they can walk in the countryside in their favourite white trainers, the paths are getting widened too.

It's the Lammas meadows and lowland floodplains that make my local patch a SSSI. Not a great deal to see at the moment on the marshes themselves apart from some gulls enjoying the flooded areas.

Out on the horse paddocks there was the usual suspects of finches and pigeons, haven’t seen a Stock Dove here for a while though.

At the waterworks nature reserve I had a close encounter with a pair of Grey Wagtails and a few of the wintering ducks have returned now it’s all defrosted again but not much else was around, there seemed to be more people than birds here today.

Some pictures of the waterworks for Benjamin to reminisce over

View onto one of the old filterbeds

[trevor]

[millerd]

Splendid to see, Buggy! (and as Trevor says, ) There's obviously been a bit more sunshine over your way than round here over the weekend.

Cheers,

Dave

[Benjamin]

Great to get the season going Paul, and thanks for the context shots - really enjoyed them. I always had a lot of success around the ‘Great Meadow’ at the waterworks, and along the stretch of the Lee that runs close by. Hopefully the people/butterflies ratio will return to something more acceptable as the season gets going and the cafes/pubs are cleared to work their magic once again....

[David M]

Fabulous report, Paul. So uplifting to see the first butterfly of the year. I don't think my first has ever been a Brimstone but maybe this weekend if the forecast is right?

Such a lot to see aside from the Brimstone and some lovely colours too. You've got finding things in your local patch down to a fine art, especially that close encounter with the muntjac.

[Maximus]

Yes, it's great that you found a Brimstone to kick of your season

[Wurzel]

Cracking that you're off and running Bugboy Love the shots especially of it flying towards you head on (bot left of the four) brilliant that is
Round our way the weather keep shifting the good weather - it's always "coming tomorrow" until tomorrow becomes today and then it's "coming tomorrow"

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Trevor, good to see you've seen one now too
Thanks Dave, yes just the very edge of the cloud that was masking most of London last weekend so just enough sun to wake him up
You're welcome Ben , I can but hope the pubs and bars draw people away a bit so I can wander my patch a little more comfortable with my big lenses dangling round my neck
Thanks David, that Muntjac was pure luck, no time to check camera settings and running towards me meant it was very much point and hope the autofocus kept up with the movement, that was the only pic that came out from 20 or so I got
Thanks Maximus, it's always a joy to see the first Brimstone of the year, a sure sign winter is drawing to a close
Thanks Wurzel, yea I like that one too , all lucky shots though as he was constantly fluttering in and out of the Bramble searching for a female so just had to hope the autofocus could work out what I was aiming at, most of the time it didn't

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February 2021

I was on a half day today, 24th, and one of the best places locally for early butterflies is Tottenham Marshes, by mid March on a sunny day I should be able to tick off all four hibernators plus a reasonable chance of an early white or Specklie. Conveniently it’s on the way home for me, just round the back of Tottenham Hale station. Unfortunately, despite the warm, sunny weather, not a butterfly was to be seen. It was worth the visit though, managing an avian lifer .

Before I get to that though a few context shots of where the butterflies will turn up in the coming weeks. This gully runs north to south (the sun is behind me here, hiding behind a cloud) with a main path up the slope to the left and part of the river lea behind the fence on the right. As the days get longer the nettle growth grows thick and makes exploring near impossible but in the first few weeks of activity it makes for good hunting grounds

There’s lots of Fox dens in this bank as well, most likely plenty of Peacocks hiding down there too!

The other main spot which for me is the litmus test for butterfly activity is this innocuous strip of grass. Again running north/south and with enough shelter on either side to provide a good sun trap on even a windy day. Commas and Peacocks particularly like this patch and will be setting up territories along here very soon . Have to be careful though, being a rather secluded spot I've occasionally stumbled across humans in cop, particularly awkward with a large camera (and even larger lens) hanging round your neck !

Anyway nothing was seen but exploring another area next to another part of the river where Small Tortoiseshells turn up, I noticed a heron feeding out of the corner of my eye. It took a few moments for my brain to catch up with what my eyes had seen, the Heron was extremely pale and a second glance helped the penny to drop, it was a Great White Egret, a new coloniser to the UK (in fact it’s relatively new to Europe), the first pair recorded as breeding in the UK were on the Somerset levels in 2012, and numbers have increased every year since. I believe there has been a big influx this winter so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised to find one. Even so I stayed quite a while watching it hunting Sticklebacks and it was the only creature I photographed today

[bugboy]

February 2021

Friday 26th, under clear blue skies and warmth that threatened to have me stripping down to my t-shirt, I was a little surprised not to find a single butterfly in Epping forest during my 4-hour wander. There’s plenty of Sallow around with catkins bursting, and the buzzing sound of queen Bumble bees filled the air near these. I found a colony of wild Honeybees halfway up a tree and looking at many of the incoming workers, they’d obviously found these catkins as well.

The wood was alive with the sound of small birds. Just two weeks ago these birds were all flocking together as they searched for food under a layer of snow. Now they had all paired off and are busy setting up territories and many border squabbles to be heard in the undergrowth and canopy. Despite this there was precious little to point my camera at, a solitary Buzzard had found a thermal and on Conaught Water a bathing Greylag Goose cared not a jot about personal dignity whilst the Black-headed Gulls fought over bread thrown in from passers by.

This evening the moon looked very bright

[Goldie M]

You can't beat the Moon for coming up trumps Bugboy Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cracking shots of the GWE Bugboy I'm still trying to work out the Gos-Sparrowhawk from a post or so back I keep wavering - could you send it to the local bird club? Although if the weather holds you might be a little busy over the next few days

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[bugboy]

It did look particularly bright the other night didn't it Goldie, I really should take some pics of it during other phases though, I only seem to pay it any attention on full moon nights
Thanks Wurzel, I am clutching at a rather large bunch of straws with that Gos/Sparrowhawk. It is a very tightly cropped picture of a bird very high up in the sky, so no real point of reference to gauge its size. I did get chatting to a chap last summer there who seemed very knowledgeable of the place, and he said he knew of a least one breeding pair of Goshawks here in recent years so it's not beyond the realm of possibility, and of course this is the right time of year to look for them souring high up. As for this particular sighting I'll probably never know for sure, I've not ticked it off on my bird 'twitch' list... which reminds me, need to add Great White Egret to that particular list, love a good list

March 2021

Well I’ve still stalled at just the one Brimstone, despite my best attempts to add to my tally. I was working over the weekend but a lunchtime wander on Saturday came up with nothing, despite the unseasonably warm weather. Sunday was a non-starter, the low cloud never really cleared until well after lunch in my part of the world. Today (1st) I had another half day so a stop off at Tottenham Marshes on the way home was the obvious option. Cloud cover had begun to break up late morning but I don’t think it was quite enough to allow the weak sun to tip things over the edge for some activity, a shame since there’s now plenty of Prunus blossom to feast upon.

No Great White Egret today and not a great deal else either. There was a pair of Tufted Duck floating around, enjoying a sunny spell

And another close encounter with a Cetti’s Warbler, I think this amount of visibility to human eyes counts as a yellow card offence to his species (as opposed to the straight red card for the one back in January!)

Hopefully not long to wait to add a few more lepidoptera sightings to the year

[David M]

Shame about weather conditions for you on the Sunday, Paul. I was convinced that it was sunny everywhere that day, but clearly I was wrong.

What a great surprise to find that Great White Egret though. You've managed to get some great shots of it too and that is some compensation for the lack of butterflies.

[bugboy]

Thanks David but sadly (for me anyway) the west of the country seemed to be getting the lions share of butterfly friendly weather of recent.

March 2021

The 6th was another day left wanting, no hope of any of our scaly-winged friends appearing under cloudy skies with temperatures peaking at just 6 degrees, so another day pointing the big lens at birds again. I don’t know what it is with my local Cetti’s Warblers at the moment, they seem to have thrown the rule book out the window. I heard the one from January (I presume the same one since it was the same bramble thicket) shouting away and he practically popped out in front of me, too close to focus on with my lens. Once I’d backed off a bit, he’d snuck back down but he was still visible.
The horse paddocks were covered in Pied Wagtails this afternoon, forty or fifty of them if not more. In amongst them were the resident flocks of Linnet, Chaffinch and Goldfinch and a few Black-headed Gull. In the trees surrounding I could hear Redwing and Fieldfare chatting away to each other.

A wander round the waterworks nature reserve was much quieter people-wise than my last visit. It’s amazing how few people feel the need for their daily exorcise when the sun doesn’t come out. A few Teal and Gadwall were floating around to the sound of the Dabchicks calling from the reeds. A crow was looking over things in the menacing way they have whilst drying off.

A walk along the river Lea was next, a flash of blue signaled a passing Kingfisher. It settled all to briefly before vanishing around a bend. Further along a gravel bank provides a safe island for any birds looking for a siesta. Just a pair of Lesser Black-backed Gull dropped in today. Nearby a Cormorant had finished fishing and was having a bit of a bathing session before flying off.

On the return walk I came across a pair of Ring-necked Parakeets guarding their chosen nesting site (a passing squirrel got a little to close and quickly regretted its decision) then back at the horse paddocks I found a male Grey Wagtail looking very smart as he was coming into his full breeding regalia and the winter thrushes had come out from hiding and now littered one of the smaller paddocks.

So its now nearly two weeks since I’ve seen my one and only butterfly of the year and this coming week doesn’t look too promising either, it might be a little while yet before this particular PD pulls out of its winter blues properly.

[trevor]

Even here, Sun OK, Air too cool.

[Maximus]

Cetti's Warblers really are such nondescript looking birds for one with such a lovely 'burst of song' voice Great shot of the Cormorant in flight

[bugboy]

There was more sun here on Sunday Trevor, but like you, just not warm enough
Thanks Maximus, they are indeed rather plain, but not the plainest, that prize goes to the Garden Warbler who's plainness has become an identifying feature

March 2021

I initially had no intention of going for a wander on the 7th, based foolishly on the weekends forecast which said Saturday was going to be the sunnier of the two days. I never saw the sun on Saturday but late morning on Sunday it began breaking through and by the afternoon it was all but wall to wall blue sky! Luckily my plans which mostly involved lazing around in front of the TV were easily changed. Compared to the previous day it felt decidedly springlike, even quite warm in the sheltered sun traps, just not enough to stir anything butterfly-like from its slumber so it was another day of birds providing the colour.

Greenfinches calling from the treetops added to the spring feeling, and a Mistle Thrush was also feeling the mood, finding a clump of horsehair after polishing off an unfortunate worm. The Greylags are starting to pair off now too.

After searching high and low for anything butterfly like, I decided to see if I could track down the Kingfisher I’d seen the previous day on the River Lea. It was still shooting up and down the same stretch of water but being the shy birds they are, it was difficult to pin down (the large amount of people and noisy dogs wasn't helping). The only shots I managed were distant ones through a maze of branches and twigs of a fallen down tree it decided to perch in on the other side of the river. With the naked eye it was just a thin slither of azure and I’m amazed my lens could work out what I was aiming at, picking out enough detail to see it was a Queenfisher. I couldn't resist a Teal, they just look so good in the sun don’t they .

Starlings also look very good in the sun.

The last target of the day was a Blue Tit flitting around at the top of a flowering cherry pretending to be a Flycatcher. The midges it was catching were invisible from where I was standing.

[Benjamin]

I’m looking forward to seeing the Lee Valley butterflies burst into life very soon Paul, but for now that is a really lovely selection of birds!

[bugboy]

Me too Ben, I've booked the last week of March off so I'm hoping the weather plays fair and I can get out and do some proper butterflying

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March 2021

9th. Look what I found on my lunchtime wander at work today

It was warm enough for just a t-shirt so I wasn't too surprised to find something, although I was more expecting a Comma which do well at work. I do hope he can remember where he's been sleeping these past few months though, he may need to go back given the forecast for the next few days

[trevor]

Lovely Peacock . Went searching myself, nothing.