Author: martintayler

 

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Today we went to RSPB Strumpshaw Fen in Norfolk (about an hour up the coast from Walberswick). We were hoping to see (and photograph!) a Swallowtail butterfly for which the reserve is famous. Last year on a visit here I had seen one as soon as I got out of the car in the car park but never saw one again. Well this year we did the same trail (but in reverse) and struck lucky seeing one at close quarters.

We saw other butterflies and dragonflies and damselflies too. I shall have to get my charts out later to try and identify them but supper at the pub is now beckoning. (Now added but waiting, and hoping, to be corrected!)

Male swallowtail butterfly

Male swallowtail butterfly

Male swallowtail butterfly

Painted lady butterfly

Male brimstone butterfly

Painted lady butterfly

Male  banded demoiselle damselfly

Male black-tailed skimmer damselfly

Female four-spotted chaser damselfly

Male speckled wood butterfly

Male black-tailed skimmer damselfly

Male four-spotted chaser damselfly

Male red-eyed damselfly

Male large red damselfly

Male common blue damselfly

Male red-eyed damselfly

Marsh orchid

Ragged robin

Great crested grebe and offspring

Female blackbird

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We have had some very mixed weather at RSPB Minsmere today but once again this fantastic nature reserve has not disappointed.

The day started sunny and warm (enough to encourage us to venture out in shorts) but our visit to the reserve ended mid afternoon with a torrential downpour; luckily we were sheltered in a hide but we decided to quit and run (not literally though) and head back to our excellent holiday home in Walberswick (https://www.blythweb.co.uk/cranbourne).

Highlights were marsh harriers, spotted and common redshank, black-tailed godwits, mediterranean gulls (but no photos), sand martins, kittiwakes, common and sandwich terns (sadly no photo), stonechats (in the dunes) and, as always, avocets.

Godwits and avocet in the downpour

Stonechat

Female marsh harrier

Male marsh harrier

Barnacle goose

Greylag geese and goslings

Spotted redshank

Common redshank

Little egret

Black-tailed godwits

Sand martin

Common tern

Shelduck

Post-coital embrace for these avocets

Kittiwake

Deadly (nightshade) little egret

Damselfly

Marsh orchid

Tiger moth

All sorts of wild things at Minsmere

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a couple of hours touring around “Constable Country” on the Essex/Suffolk border visiting Dedham, East Bergholt and Stoke by Nayland on our way to Walberswick in Suffolk. The most interesting, from my point of view, was the visit to Flatford Mill near East Bergholt where John Constable painted the Hay Wain, one of his most famous landscapes.

Willy Lott’s house – the setting of John Constable’s The Hay Wain (2019)

A print of the The Hay Wain by  John Constable (1821)

Flatford Mill

Valley Farm

There were a couple of opportunities for nature photos here as there was a robin at the National trust café and a female broad-bodied chaser and some blue damselflies in a lovely little wildflower garden run by the RSPB.

Robin

Female broad-bodied chaser

Damselflies

 

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Our hosts at the B&B at which we are staying in Maldon, Essex suggested two really good activities for today: firstly, a walk along the tow paths of the Chelmer and Blackwater Canal to Heybridge Basin; secondly, a visit to the gardens at Beeleigh Abbey.

Interesting graffiti under one of the bridges of the Chelmer and Blackwater Canal linking sea with the land

There were a few opportunities for nature photographs especially as we made a diversion on the route to Heybridge Basin and followed the sea wall of the Blackwater River where we saw common terns, oystercatchers and little egrets, as well as thousands of black-headed gulls. We even heard a cuckoo singing.

On the canal as well as coots and moorhens we saw more common terns and a kestrel. There were dragonflies two.

The Chelmer and Blackwater Canal

Holly blue butterfly along the canal

Female four-spotted chaser on a metal railing alongside the canal

Great views from the sea wall back to our B&B 32 The Hythe with St Mary’s Church behind

Common tern

Oystercatcher

Little egret

The sea wall leading in to Heybridge Basin

Kestrel

Fortunately the weather has improved for some lucky couple

Beeleigh Abbey was a monastery constructed in 1180 for the White Canons, otherwise known as the Norbertines or Premonstratensians. It was purchased by William Foyle, the owner of Foyles Bookshop, in 1943 and Christopher and Catherine Foyle, the current owners, open the gardens on certain days in the summer.

The rose garden was particularly beautiful especially as there were some small tortoiseshell butterflies. The garden also has a riverside walk where we again saw the ubiquitous little egrets.

Beeleigh Abbey

Small tortoiseshell butterfly

The riverside walk

Little egret

A beer at The Queens Head Inn on the quayside back in Maldon was very welcome

 

 

 

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We are spending a few days in Essex en route to a week’s holiday in Suffolk Today we visited two nature reserves run by Essex Wildlife Trust.

Old barges on the Blackwater Estuary at Maldon where we are staying at the excellent B&B 32 The Hythe right on the harbour http://www.thehythemaldon.co.uk/

The first was the vast expanse of Abberton Reservoir. We didn’t spend very long here as it was very exposed and very windy but we did have very good views of birds we have not seen this year – swifts and common terns. There were plenty of other birds but they were quite distant and the light wasn’t great for photography.

Common tern at Abberton Reservoir

Tufted ducks at Abberton Reservoir

Egyptian geese at Abberton Reservoir

Greylag  geese at Abberton Reservoir

Pochard at Abberton Reservoir

Cormorant at Abberton Reservoir

Great crested grebe at Abberton Reservoir

The second reserve was Fingringhoe Wick which was more intimate and much more rewarding. As the light wasn’t good throughout the day the standout moment was not visual but aural – a nightingale singing in a bush right at the beginning of our walk.  It is the first time we have heard a nightingale in the UK.

There were lots of hides but the best was one which looked out on to the Colne Estuary, where we saw oystercatchers, black-headed gulls, shelduck, common tern and lots of little egrets.

The excellent Margaret hide looking out on to the Colne Estuary

Oystercatcher at Fingringhoe Wick

Common tern at Fingringhoe Wick

Black-headed gull and delicacy at Fingringhoe Wick

Little egret

On a small pool at the Kingfisher hide we saw a little grebe and a redshank.

Redshank

Little grebe

Shelduck orchestrating a mute swan

We didn’t see swifts here but there were swallows and house martins.

It’s not been the best of weather but we had a great day out.

 

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As I sit here writing this blog (and watching the ICC Cricket World Cup from sunny London) we are having a torrential downpour. Really I shouldn’t be surprised as when editing my photos from our visit this morning to Acton Court, a Tudor manor house near Latteridge in south Gloucestershire, I could see that the weather was quite threatening and the photos rather moody.

In fact we were very lucky to complete our visit to the garden (which was open to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme) in the dry. We really enjoyed the vegetable garden, the wild meadows, the wild flower garden and the old English roses as well as the butterflies and insects.

Meadow brown butterfly

As well as the lovely refreshments (coffee and home made cakes) there were stands from the Hawk and Owl Trust and Owl Occasions  although the few owls on display looked very nervous and, to me, sad.

Great grey owl

Barn owl

Acton Court’s website (https://www.actoncourt.com/) says the following of the history of the manor house:

“In 1535, one of England’s most colourful kings, Henry VIII, came to stay at Acton Court with his second wife, Anne Boleyn, while on his summer Progress around the West Country. The owner of Acton Court, Nicholas Poyntz, wanted to impress his sovereign, so for Henry’s pleasure, he built a magnificent new East Wing on to the existing moated manor house. The new wing was a splendid testament to Nicholas Poyntz’s loyalty to his King. He went to immense trouble and expense to impress Henry, decorating the state apartments lavishly and fashionably. He was well rewarded as it is thought he was knighted during the royal visit.

Today, the East Wing which was built in just nine months comprises most of what remains at Acton Court. It offers a rare example of 16th century royal state apartments and some decorations which are said to be the finest of their kind in England.”

Acton Court is open to the public for three National Garden Scheme Days in June, and three Heritage Open Days in September.

 

What do you do when it’s too wet for golf? – Go bird watching.

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I spent a couple of hours in the rain at Chew Valley Lake in North Somerset without taking a photo and was about to give up and go home when suddenly a Great White Egret flew right in front of me. Encouraged a stayed for a while longer and got some pleasing photographs. The rain stopped and the sun came out for a while. The GWE moved to the back of the lake and I experimented with a bit of digiscoping. I need to put some more effort in to this as I must say I get a better view through my telescope than I do looking through the camera lens.

Great white egret flying in

Bad hair day for the great white egret

Great white egret checking its hair

Great white egret fishing for his lunch

Close up of GWE

GWE and mute swan

Mute swans

Shelduck

Canada geese

Canada geese

These last two photos were my best efforts at digiscoping

 

 

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It was a gloomy evening but I needed to tear myself away from watching the Cricket World Cup on the television and so I strolled across the road to Stoke Park Estate for an hour of nature watching. There was lots to see and enjoy as I hope you can see from my photos.

Duchess Pond in Stoke Park Estate – only a couple of miles from Bristol city centre and less than 5 minutes on foot from home

The grey heron flew in as I arrived

A whitethroat made a lot of noise above the pond

Flowers of so many colours

Insects too

Canada geese

Moorhens young and old

Swallows

Mallards

And the grey heron kept moving around the pond in search of his supper

I even got back in time to see the end of the cricket match.

 

 

 

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On a walk round our local park there was lots to hear (mainly warblers) but not much to see as the foliage on the trees is now very dense. However, there were ducklings, goslings and the chicks (if that’s the right name) of coots on the lake and a dipper on the River Frome.

 

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We had an enjoyable morning at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge visiting the hides which look north out on to the Severn Estuary and taking the “summer walk” down to the edges of the estuary. However, other than shelduck and 3 curlew there wasn’t much to see on the estuary except for the lovely views.

The beautiful meadows and reed beds on the edges of the Severn Estuary

A distant curlew

On the pools we had close up views of mainly shelduck, greylag geese, avocet, gadwall and black-headed gulls but there was a common crane, a pied wagtail with two juveniles, a couple of bathing linnets, an oystercatcher and, in the far distance, a little ringed plover.

Adult pied wagtail

Juvenile pied wagtail

Linnet

Oystercatcher

Avocet

Shelduck with  ducklings

Shelduck

Common crane

Barnacle geese

Greylag goose

Mute swan

Gadwall

 

 

 

 

 

We are very pleased to see that at least one of the blue tit chicks in our garden has fledged.

We put up a nest box last year, more in hope than anything as our garden is so tiny we  couldn’t really see a suitable spot which would afford birds plenty of cover. However, on the 19th April this year I took the following photo of a blue tit, clearly preparing a nest.

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen plenty of action with the blue tits coming and going.

… and voilà today I encountered this young fellow:

 

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Slideshow of blue tit fledgling.

Encouraged, we’ve now added two more nest boxes and are looking at other ways of attracting wildlife to our garden – no matter how small.

 

 

 

As my wife Wendy was doing a sewing workshop in Somerset I went a little further in to the county and spent the day at one of my favourite bird reserves at RSPB Ham Wall on the Somerset levels.

My time was very much taken up watching just 4 species of bird: Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great White Egret, Marsh Harrier and Great Crested Grebe although I did see a Grey Heron, a Little Egret,  a male Gadwall, Garganey and Common Pochard.

There were a few damselflies and dragonflies but only small numbers and so that’s probably why I didn’t see any Hobbies. I did hear a cuckoo but it sounded quite distant.

Slideshow of today’s photos

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Great Spotted Woodpecker with chick

Great White Egret

Great Crested Grebe with chicks (on her back)

Female pochard

Marsh harrier

Little egret