Neil Freeman

[Maximus]

Hi Neil, so thats what spring looks like, its hard to imagine with whats going on outside at the moment. Lovely scenic shots, must remember to take more myself

Merry Christmas to you and your family, and roll on spring 2014

Mike

[Wurzel]

Lovely shots Neil, I can almost smell the Bluebells Have a cracking Christmas

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks guys, hope you had a great Christmas.

Saturday 28th December

After the high winds and heavy rain during the past week or so, the sun made a few brief attempts to break through yesterday, albeit very briefly. With some intermittent heavy downpours of rain this made for some dramatic looking weather with the sun out against a dark grey sky.

Sun shining on the neighbours Willow against a dark grey sky.

Today was much quieter with not much wind and the sun out for most of the day. This brought the birds out and for most of the day there was a steady stream of visitors including a family of Blackbirds that kept coming back to work over the fallen leaves that are still on my lawn.

Half a dozen Blackbirds...

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker is still around and spent most of the morning around the trees at the bottom of the garden.

GS Woodpecker keeping his distance at the bottom of the garden

The Berberis was also still playing host to various little brown jobs including Sparrows and Blackcaps that were picking at the berries still remaining.

A pair of House Sparrows.

Female Blackcap(Redcap?)

Amongst my Christmas pressies I had a couple of nice books and a bird feeding station ...

and later this morning decided to set up the feeding station in the garden in place of the old bird table that I had that I was hanging a couple of feeders from. This came complete with new feeders, the only one that I haven't used yet is the peanut feeder because I have no peanuts for it, so I hung one of my old feeders from it as well for the time being. I am guessing that I will probably experiment a bit with the feeders as I see what is most popular with its visitors.

my new bird feeding station

No sooner had I set it up than it had its first inquisitive visitor...

Robin checking out the new station.

...closely followed by the usual Great Tits and Blue Tits that are nearly always around

Bye for now,

Neil

[Wurzel]

In all the revelry somehow I missed your last post Neil Looks like you had a good haul of Chimble pressies Good spot of the 'Redcap' they can be pretty skulky at this time of year, have a cracking New Year

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel,

Hope you had a cracking New Year too

Back at work on Thursday which seemed to be the only half way decent day we have had around here so far this year. The weekend arrives and lo and behold, the wind and rain was back, non-stop all bl**dy weekend.
Still, gave me a chance to take the decorations down and put them up in the loft for another year and have a bit of a tidy up after the Christmas break.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 12th January

I actually saw my first butterfly of the year last week, a Red Admiral fluttering around inside one of the buildings at work. It had undoubtedly been disturbed from where ever it was settled up for the winter and seemed to be unsuccessfully trying to find a way out. unfortunately it was too high up to do anything about and the weather outside was pretty grotty anyway.
I must admit that I don't really think of these as sightings as such as I invariably see a couple of hibernators in similar circumstances each year and always feel a little sad that they have been disturbed and are using up their reserves and strength which they are unlikely to replenish. I would much rather not see any at all until the right conditions arrive in Spring for them to go about their normal business.

Yesterday (Saturday 11th), the weather finally calmed down a bit and there was some nice sunny spells although it had gone colder than of later. Today started off with the first proper frost that we have had for some weeks and then got steadily cloudier until the rain started again earlier this evening.
Loads of birds in the garden yesterday and this morning including all the usual suspects and whenever I went into the back room I would look out of the window and take the occasional shot through the glass.

'Redcap' - Coverdale 11.01.2014

Blackbird - Coverdale 11.01.2014

Jay - Coverdale 12.01.2014

Robin - Coverdale 12.01.2014

Robin - Coverdale 12.01.2014

Looks like another load of rain heading in over the next couple of days...oh well, I am going to be stuck indoors at work all week anyway.
I hope that all on UKB are not too badly affected by the flooding that is happening elsewhere, particularly those in the worst affected areas.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Whilst going through my photos from last summer, I came across the couple below, both taken in Dorset in early September. For me they bring back fantastic memories of special days when a couple of species in particular, both in different ways and for different reasons, gave me so much pleasure

The first one was taken in Swanage of a Buddleia seen in a garden whilst walking up to Peveril Point and brought back memories of many years ago when I was very much younger...

and the second one taken at Alners Gorse and is an example of a species that, living in the Midlands, I have never seen in the numbers before that I saw in Dorset this year (yes, there are a couple of butterflies in the shot). I reckon that Wurzel will recognise the spot and know what butterflies are in it without even looking for them

Cheers,

Neil.

[William]

Lovely shots Neil - they bring it all flooding back . The quantity of butterflies on that Buddleia must be something to remember!

[David M]

That buddleia is absolutely laden with Tortoiseshells. Lovely image!

Which is the species you are referring to in your second shot, Neil? The only butterfly I think I can see is a male Brimstone.

[Lee Hurrell]

Lovely shots, Neil. I make it 13 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Peacock and 2 Small White in the first image but can also only see one male Brimstone in the second...

Best wishes,

Lee

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Neil,

Love your last couple of posts. Keep the photos of the garden birds coming, and now you have recieved a bird book for Christmas, you won`t have a problem with identifying them.

I have never seen so many Small Tortoiseshells on one Buddleia since my childhood, [about 10 years ago ]. I counted 19 butterflies in total, including the two Whites.

Al the best, Nick.

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks for the comments guys

The numbers of Small Tortoiseshells around, not only in Dorset, but also locally and in my garden were certainly amongst the highlights of 2013 for me.

Nick, you were close, it is much easier on the original but I have counted 19 Tortoiseshells plus a couple of Small Whites on the Buddleia.

A couple more Tortoiseshell on Buddleia shots from Dorset...

I suppose the second photo was a bit sneaky really, what looks like a male Brimstone is actually a Clouded Yellow showing its underwing as it comes in to settle (or takes off, I can't remember which). The original shows a bit of topside which can just be seen in this rather extreme crop.

There is also a second Clouded Yellow in flight near the left side of the photo just above half way up as in this other extreme crop...

...hence my comment about a species that I have never before seen in the numbers that I saw in Dorset last year. For the whole week that I was there I saw multiple Clouded Yellows at various sites which again really made 2013 a year to remember

Bye for now,

Neil.

[David M]

Aah! Mystery solved. Thanks, Neil.

[Wurzel]

Great shots of the Tort fest Neil I saw the Alners shot and the 'obvious' cloudy and memories came flooding back of a great day at a great site with great company and butterflies galore! It left me feeling a little bit down... Still only about 10 more weeks to go

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel,

My apologies for making you feel a bit down.....that's the thing with looking back through last years photos, on the one hand I enjoy the memories they bring back and on the other hand it makes me miss the long evenings and sunny days

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Saturday 25th January

Back to the present and today really was a day of two halves. This morning was actually quite pleasant for a couple of hours as Jane and myself went out and did a bit of shopping and for a minute you could actually believe that spring was not far away
This afternoon turned quite nasty as the clouds turned steadily darker until the heavens opened with some heavy rain at first which then turned into a really heavy hailstorm that rattled loudly of the windows and made us remember that we still have a way to go yet.

In the hour or so between getting back from the shops and the weather turning grotty I looked out the back a couple of times and spotted most of the usual birds around the garden. Great, Blue and Coal Tits were visiting the feeder as usual plus a little group of Long-tailed Tits.

The female Black-cap is still lurking around and today she was coming out of the bushes more often to visit the feeders, particularly when the Long-tailed Tits were around for some reason.

I have not seen any butterflies on the wing outside so far this year, mind you I have not really had the chance to look around with the best weather being when I have been at work during the week.
I have seen a couple fluttering around inside the workshops at work over the past few weeks, 1 Red Admiral and 1 Peacock, but I don't really count these as they have been disturbed by human activity and should by rights have been tucked away out of sight until the Spring. Indeed in both cases it was early in the morning and still dark outside.

Bye for now,

Neil

[Nick Broomer]

Lovely shots of the Long-tailed Tits on your new feeder Neil. The LTT is such a cute little bird, and it will not be long now before they start building their very elaborate nests. Apparently they have been known to use 2,000 feathers to insulate their nests, no wonder it takes about two weeks to build.

All the best, Nick.

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Nick, they are lovely little birds and full of character

Looking back through last years photos again, this time for Silver-washed Fritillary shots for the favourite photos thread, I went straight to my Heddon Valley Folder, this being the first place that I had seen them.

This brought back all the memories of what a fantastic few days I had had there, especially with Dark Green and High Brown Fritillaries, and I also noticed that there were still some photos that I had taken that I liked and that I had not posted yet, albeit some of these were of the same butterflies that I had posted before but from different angles.

So whilst Jane is sitting glued to double Corrie on the telly I have picked a few more to pass away another cold, dark evening

Dark Green Fritillary - Heddon Valley 06.07.2013

Dark Green Fritillary - Heddon Valley 06.07.2013

Dark Green Fritillary - Heddon Valley 07.07.2013

High Brown Fritillary - Heddon Valley 06.07.2013

High Brown Fritillary - Heddon Valley 06.07.2013

Maybe it is just me but I think that the blurred cow parsley in the foreground of the photo below gives it a bit of the romantic soft focus effect.......maybe it is just me

High Brown Fritillary pair - Heddon Valley 07.07.2013

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Hoggers]

Stunning photos Neil and on a cold, wet dark day in January seeing those Small Tortoiseshells on the Buddleia has cheered me up no end!

Best Wishes

Hoggers

[Wurzel]

I don't know about giving it a "soft focus romantic look" as to be honest the last shot is a bit 'top shelf' Lovely set of photos of a species I've yet to see, perhaps 2014 cold be the year?

Have a goodun

Wurzel