www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Great shot Pete, looks beautiful! Have always liked stonechats myself, but I don't think I have seen one before.

Thats a great picture

Could any one tell me what this bird is please, taken in Jersey today a number of them flying about, picture not at all great but best i could do.

Cheers

Sezar

Hi Sezar,

That's a female Linnet. Lovely little bird.

Denise

The butterflies have again disappeared, in the mean time just saw this House Sparrow on the lawn and it have two little patches of white on its head.

We have had swallows in our shed probably longer than we have lived here and there was three nests of fledgelings. Here is one of the young ones as it was fledging...they can fly mostly fine, few navigation problems, but they are speedy as any fully grown adults. Here is one:



Do swallows have more than one nest or can they? I nearly sure the ones in our shed, two nests had the same parents, but I can't be 100% on that

Today early morning in the garden. Fox with two young ones.

Cheers

Sezar

This juvenile goldfinch appeared to be having a whale of a time eating thistle seeds. Taken at Backwell Lake on Tuesday 28th July.

The chalkhill blues took a backseat yesterday at Draycott Sleights as up to three kestrels gave a superb aerial display as they hunted over the slopes. I used a Sony AF Reflex lens on my A700 for this shot.

Identification please

Saw these high in a pine at Collard Hill and reckoned that they may be Buzzards but I'm not sure - can any of you ornithologists help?

Mike

Saw these high in a pine at Collard Hill and reckoned that they may be Buzzards

I am not an expert but looks like a buzzard. Colours can be very variable. Here is picture of one I took a few weeks ago in Wales.

Cheers

Sezar

A couple of rarities from Chew Valley Lake yesterday, a juvenile (first pic) and adult cattle egret. These were on the island in Heron's Pool and snapped from the roadside. I used a 70-400 zoom plus 1.4x teleconverter.

A couple of gulls in flight at Chew Valley Lake last week.

Hi all,
When my young nephew Tomas visited from Antwerp this spring, he took this shot of a Red Kite in flight at Andover. I'm sure you'll agree, it's not bad for an 11 year old!
Neil

Excellent picture, when early in the year we visited the farm feeding grounds in Wales I could not get a decent picture. Red kites are so fast.

Cheers,

Sezar

sahikmet wrote:Red kites are so fast.

Agreed, when we went there were 350 Kite's at the feed station. It was a nightmare just picking a target, let alone one of 350 fast moving targets.
Luckily we have a good population local to us now, we checked up on there numbers just last weekend. Up to 60 birds now, and they have a winter feed station, not telling you where though.

Gruditch

Gruditch wrote:

sahikmet wrote:Red kites are so fast.

Agreed, when we went there were 350 Kite's at the feed station. It was a nightmare just picking a target, let alone one of 350 fast moving targets.
Luckily we have a good population local to us now, we checked up on there numbers just last weekend. Up to 60 birds now, and they have a winter feed station, not telling you where though.

Gruditch

That's amazing Gruditch, I know of a roost on the border between Wilts and a neighbouring county but had no idea they had built up to these sorts of number in Wiltshire. Great news.

As far as I am aware the Wiltshire Kites all descend from Red kites imported from Spain in the early 90's which spread from the release sites in the Chilterns to neighbouring areas. Apparently the first recorded breeding in Wilts was in 2000 (well the first since mid 19th century). so they have clearly done well in the last nine years! I even saw one just south of Salisbury last summer.

Interestingly, genetic analysis of the Welsh population have shown that they all descend from one original female.

That is to say the Welsh population of Red Kite; not the population of Wales...!

Felix.

A very good site for red kite is Bwlch Nant yr Arian Centre in mid-Wales. It is a forestry commission owned lake and woodland, and the kites are fed near the lake. There are fewer kites than at Gigrin farm, and the way they fly down to take food means it's not that difficult to track them as they approach. It's also nice to have the lake as a backdrop. There are hides but they aren't necessary because there's a spit of land into the lake where you can stand with your camera facing over the lake to where the birds are. Xmilehigh and I went there last March. Feeding began at 2pm and about 40 birds were diving down to pick up food for an hour afterwards. There's a charge for parking but no additional charge to enter the park.

Seeing Red Kites from the M40 is one of the highlights of driving out of London, (well apart from driving out of London....)

There seem to be more and more each time I go that way. It used to be once you got past the Chilterns but I now see them before the hills too.

I have relatives in near Pershore in Worcestershire and they said they have started to see them near them too.

Cheers

Lee

Here is a pheasant I took today flying. There was about 40 or more peasants in the field I was at. Taen with my Tamon 18-200mm IF macro