Thanks everyone, in the absence of butterflies he’s certainly helped to fill the gap this winter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2022
Thursday 3rd. Well, my replacement camera arrived significantly sooner than I was led to believe so in the interests of getting the hang of it whilst my other one is being fixed (the shutter needs replacing which could take 1 to 4 weeks+ depending on whether they need to order the part in from Europe or not) I went out in search of Mr Kingfisher again. Just a few fleeting glimpses today, nowhere near as accommodating as when I last saw him. It was decidedly overcast so no chance of my first butterfly of the year so here’s some more birds.
![collage.png (2.21 MiB) Viewed 480 times Shoveler, Fieldfare, Wren, Redwing.](./files/thumb_13753_d6a0ae6a54c4bfcb92bc9bc70d275d51)
- Shoveler, Fieldfare, Wren, Redwing.
The camera is a more basic model than what I’m used to, a 450D (I'm already forking out enough so I wasn't going to spend any more than what was 'essential'), and the LCD screen has a noticeably lower resolution and not very usful at telling me whether i've got the exposure right, so I was more reliant on instinct when taking the pics, a bit like being transported back in time to the days before digital photography. Next time hopefully I’ll find out how it copes in sunlight.
~~~~~
That day was
Sunday the 6th when I took a work colleague to Barnes Wetland Centre for some twitching. The premium birds took a while to appear, but there were plenty of the usual suspects to look at. Cormorants, Gulls, ducks and Coots probably made up 98% of what was there.
![IMG_2051.JPG (356.89 KiB) Viewed 480 times Spot the Snipe](./files/thumb_13753_6d7eb57e673a98c2fc55c33a5f114870)
- Spot the Snipe
A male Reed Bunting, just moulting into his breeding plumage came very close and we watched him practice his scratchy song.
My friend spotted the Bittern lurking in the reeds, the first time she’d ever seen one, whilst on the other side of the same hide a Water Pipit was darting around at the edge of one of the flooded meadows.
![IMG_2152.JPG (314.29 KiB) Viewed 480 times Spot the Bittern](./files/thumb_13753_1594214e438240092460f2c43c03f8e7)
- Spot the Bittern
~~~~~
I did promise some butterflies in my last post and on
Tuesday the 8th I visited Bookham. Wall to wall blue sky and a distinct springlike feel in the air, surely I could get my season off the ground! Whilst waiting for something to show itself I had a look at the White Admiral Larvae, I found two of the three whose hibernaculum are still intact, both still snoozing. The third I suspect was just tucked away out of sight.
I was also on the look out for a small flock of Brambling which had been seen here at the weekend but no sign of them.
My first butterfly to appear was a Brimstone around noon. I saw him settle a little way ahead of me and after a few snaps he seemed to decide he had woken too early and hid away in the Brambles.
It was a couple of hours later when I managed species two of the year with a Comma.
I disturbed what was probably a second Comma a little while later but it just flew off out of sight.
Later at home I saw a couple of posts on Facebook, the Bramblings had once again been photographed
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
(from the angle of the pictures it looks like they are quite tame) and a Small Tortoiseshell was seen at one of the car parks. Good to get off the mark though and it looks like next week we may be in with some even warmer weather
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
.