Before The Break.

The title of this post should have been 'Good Afternoon Part 3', but I thought that would have been too boring and repetitive, and perhaps would have lost me some visitors to B2B....Just saying!

But before the break in the weather, it was in fact my third good afternoon session, and although Conder Pool was a little underwhelming, the day was no less rewarding than the first two.

Conder Pool.

First to note, was that the Common Terns have deserted Conder Pool. I understand the last sighting was Friday 21 August, void of checking my records, this sounds like an average date for their departure.

Just four species of birds noted today, a Spotted Redshank, 8 Ruff, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, and 13 Little Grebe.

Speckled Wood. Pete Woodruff.

A Speckled Wood seen through the viewing screen.

Saltcote Pond.

The or another Common Hawker seen again, also an Emperor Dragonfly, Brown Hawker, and 6 Common Darter. 

Painted Lady. Pete Woodruff.

Butterflies, a Painted Lady and Common Blue. 

Birk Bank.

Black Darter. Pete Woodruff.

On and over the bog,  a Common Hawker seen again, one here 7 August. Also 4 Black Darter and 4 Common Darter were all male. 

Roe Deer. Pete Woodruff.

As I came away from the bog I saw a Roe Deer, it was staring me in the face within 15 metres through the branches, but a pity it decided to move off as I fired the shutter. Also seen, was a male Stonechat in the same area I found a breeding pair on 15 July.

Garden First.

A little something of interest in the garden recently. 

Scorpionfly. Pete Woodruff.

When I first clapped eyes on this one I thought I'd found a dragonfly in the garden, it was a Scorpionfly.

 

The Header.

I was struggling again for a decent header image of my own, but Marc Heath came to the rescue with some stunning Red-veined Darters which have had a good season and bred for the first time on his local patch in Kent this year....Thanks Marc much appreciated.

Good Afternoon....The Sequel.

Not only did Paul West find 45+ Little Egret on Conder Pool 13 August, but he also achieved an excellent image of this all time highest record of the species for this amazing location....Paul West Photography

Conder Pool. 

Conder Pool 19 August. Pete Woodruff.

I think it's possible the water level at Conder Pool is lower than I have ever seen before, but it took nothing away from the enjoyment of seeing a decent number of eight species of birds.

Although they seem to have favoured the backside of one of the islands on my last two visits, I counted 18 Common Tern on view, seen as 14 adult and 4 juvenile. Up to 450 Redshank were present this visit, 6 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Ruff and 4 Dunlin made a total of 463 waders today. Also 18 Little Grebe was my best count so far this period heading into winter, and 25 Greylag. Two female Wigeon were the vanguard of winter visitors I reckon. A Small Tortoiseshell put in an appearance.

Saltcote Pond.

Common Hawker. Pete Woodruff.

A Common Hawker was obliging and settled for pictures. Also an Emperor Dragonfly, a Brown Hawker, 5 Common Darter, and 2 Speckled Wood seen.

Glasson Canal Towpath.

A brief visit to the canal towpath was rewarded by a Clouded Yellow butterfly.

Clouded Yellow. Pete Woodruff.

Though the butterfly was in pristine condition, it wasn't at all obliging.

The minute I got close for pictures....we have lift off! 

Bank End.

A return to Bank End to meet AC and find 5 Yellow Wagtail was well worth the effort. Thanks for the Stonechat record at Cockers Dyke on Friday, I always love to find a Stonechat, and I know you do too Andrew.

Birk Bank.

Common Lizard Birk Bank Bog August 19. Pete Woodruff.

Best reward for the visit to the bog at Birk Bank was a Common Lizard. I have seen few reports from here since the new boardwalk was installed, and I've previously only had brief views of one. Only 4 Common Darter seen today was a bit disappointing.

Sundew Birk Bank 19 August. Pete Woodruff.

In seeing the tracks through the bog left by the heavy machinery during the erection of the new boardwalk, I had thought it was goodbye to the Sundew, so it was great to find several clusters of it today. 

Over the hour spent here, I saw 9 Buzzard, including a family of five soaring and mewing together, and a Peregrine Falcon picked up high and drifting, went into a stoop to disappear below Birk Bank ridge....A good afternoon Part 2

Lady In The Garden.

A stunning Painted Lady paid a visit to our garden yesterday, in pristine condition, it spent a long period on the Alium coming and going throughout the afternoon.

Painted Lady. Pete Woodruff.

Good Afternoon!

I spent a few hours at two of my favourite locations during our fifth heatwave of the summer, and not without rewards.

Grisedale Brook. 

Stonechat (honestly) Pete Woodruff.

Too far off for much detail in my image above, this one was the third Stonechat on the gatepost by the newly installed bridge over the brook. 

An excellent start to my afternoon, was a pair of Stonechat to welcome me as I got out of the motor at Grisedale Bridge.  Also seen, 6 Goldfinch were atop of the gorse bushes, a Willow Warbler and Meadow Pipit were the only other birds.

Golden-ringed Dragonfly male. Pete Woodruff.

I managed to find 5 Golden-ringed Dragonfly, an obliging species away from water, were they can often be found settled and posing for photographs.

A pair of Common Darter in tandem, seen egg laying on Grisedale Brook as it entered Holme Wood, 2 Common Darter male were also seen. As I moved to leave the area, a Brown Hawker flew by me.

Hawthornthwaite Fell.

I called at Catshaw Pond on my way, to find a lone Emperor Dragonfly. Void of a search in my records, I think this is the fourth year I found one present here in Bowland. 

In Lancashire today, the Emperor Dragonfly is recorded as established in the Fylde, and in parts of central and east Lancashire, Heysham and Silverdale. I can find the Emperor Dragonfly at all sections of the Lancaster Canal that I visit, but historically it was regarded as absent in the uplands of north Lancashire. Until recently it was noted on the record website as a species outside the known area, a comment that has now been removed.

Hawthornthwaite Fell. Pete Woodruff.

I have a passion for Hawthornthwaite, born from the fact that it's as good for the Stonechat as anywhere else in Bowland, though I did only find a pair here today, but that brought the total to five Stonechat on the day, almost certainly 3 breeding pairs. 

A Golden-ringed Dragonfly flew by me heading towards Catshaw Grieve, which I found to have a steady flow considering the lack of rain this summer.

The only other bird was a Buzzard soaring overhead, but I did hear the single 'screech' call of a hidden Snipe, with every sheep close by, frozen and staring at the area. Butterflies seen were, 5 Painted Lady, a Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell. Thereby ending....A Good Afternoon.

Garden Goodies.

The heat has played its part in having our garden having a good spell of summer insects.

We had our fifth Hummingbird Hawk Moth visit this week and in the past month up to 120 Large/Small White butterflies have visited, also an impressive c.60 Holly Blue have come through the garden over a similar period. My header is one of this number.

Common Darter. Pete Woodruff.

On Thursday, a female Common Darter put in an appearance, it kept disappearing, then returned to the same perch a few times for several minutes. An excellent record which was preceded by a male Common Darter a few days earlier. 

Pool, Pond, and Bog.

Conder Pool.

Conder Pool never fails on the interest front, and didn't fail me again on Friday. I'm never involved in survey work and todays counts are estimates, though never too far from accurate. 

At least 2,100 Redshank was by far the best count ever for Conder Pool. Other waders here today, a Spotted Redshank, 2 Greenshank, 2 Ruff, 12 Dunlin and 8 Black-tailed Godwit, and after six attempts, I arrived at a count of 10 Little Grebe.

The terns were busy and all over the place, but eventually my count was of 31 Common Tern, seen as 24 adult, and 7 young including one near fledging. Also a new one for the pool, was a colour marked Common Tern, with a dark bill and white forehead, it was a juvenile moulting to 1st winter plumage.

Butterflies seen, a Gatekeeper and Painted Lady. 

Saltcote Pond.

Common Darter. Pete Woodruff.

A great little pond but a bit quiet today, an Emperor Dragonfly persistently attacked 2 Brown Hawker every time they came close, also 3 Common Darter, 5 Common Blue Damselfly, and a Blue-tailed Damselfly. Quite busy with butterflies, 6 Painted Lady, 5 Common Blue, and a Meadow Brown.

Birk Bank.

Birk Bank Bog. Pete Woodruff.

When I arrived at the bog, the sight of it slowly drying out was a bit concerning.

Birk Bank Bog. Pete Woodruff.

Though the ditch were the old boardwalk was, and the haunt favoured by the Golden Ringed Dragonfly, is still looking good.

Keeled Skimmer. Pete Woodruff.

My visit here today was an all male day with two exceptions, and it was good to find 5 Keeled Skimmer, they were seeing off anything that came close.

Keeled Skimmer Female. Pete Woodruff. 

With the two exceptions, one of which was an old female Keeled Skimmer which was obliging and basking in the sun on the boardwalk.

Common Darter Female. Pete Woodruff.

The other exception was an old female Common Darter, which was also basking on the boardwalk.

An Emperor Dragonfly was patrolling the edges of the bog during all my time here, while a Common Hawker was behaving in the same manner, flying low over the water and investigating the edges of the acidic bog, but without showing the aggression of the Emperor.

Common/Black Darter. Pete Woodruff.

Also seen, 5 Common Darter and 3 Black Darter were all male. I saw just three butterfly, 2 Speckled Wood and a Painted Lady.

Erratum....Dictionary definition, done quickly with little attention to detail.

The Keeled Skimmer female featured above, is in fact a Black-tailed Skimmer of the same sex and age....Whoooops!

Waders And Wagtails.

But first some news about the Conder Pool Common Terns, including some behaviour by an adult Common Tern towards a chick, and some other behavioral traits I've never observed before.

In the video below, the adult tern perched at the far left hand of the raft, suddenly pounces on the chick and appears to stab at it with its bill before it escapes and runs off. 

 

 

I made the following trimmed video at half speed where the aggression by the adult is more obvious.

This attack by the adult tern isn't the only odd behavior surrounding these birds. I met Ian Hartley who gave me some news about young chicks gone missing and some dead which he had removed from the raft earlier. This prompts the suspected cause to be starvation, or in the case of those missing from the raft, a Barn Owl which daily hunts Conder Pool, and has done for some time now.

There has been a lot of mayhem in the colony recently, with chicks fighting each other and various adults over fish. In one incident, the 'wrong' chick grabbed a fish and the adult snatched it back and flew off before the chick could spit it out. There's been some chick mortality recently, perhaps because of all the competition over food coming in. Some good news to follow all this, is that 16 Common Tern chicks were still alive as at Friday, so we can hopefully expect they can all make it from here on.

For providing me with the news about the state of play and the update regarding the Common Terns, I'm very grateful to Ian Hartley. 

Conder Pool.

  

I'm recording 34 Common Tern on Conder Pool Wednesday 29 July, seen as 24 adult and 16 chicks/young. Also here, in excess of 1,000 Redshank, 21 Greenshank, 14 Common Sandpiper, 7 Avocet, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Little Egret, and I made a count of 12 Little Grebe, this seems to be an early build up in winter numbers so early at the end of July. 

Bank End.

I had messaged Andrew (Wagtail) Cornell earlier to ask if he was at Bank End, and arranged to meet up with him around 1.00pm. It was a pleasant meeting with Andrew, and resulted in my seeing 6 Yellow Wagtail off Bank End Farm.

And Finally....

Some lovely bees, butterflies, moths and hovers in the garden recently, and an uninvited and unwanted gate crasher....All images Pete Woodruff.

Common Carder Bee

Comma

Silver Y

Volucella zonaria

The Volucella zonaria is a Hornet Mimic Hoverfly, migratory from the Mediterranean, and is the largest hoverfly to be found in the UK. 

NOT TODAY THANK YOU!