Past few weeks and a few ticks

What a few weeks!
Since the last update i have become a married man gained a new damselfly and had two uk bird ticks, not bad.

Ruth and I went camping in Dorset for a few nights followed by two nights in the new forest, weather was not great but it was still fantastic. Amazing sights and complete contrast to Norfolk which was nice for a bit. My main targets were odonata but the weather meant that only one day was any good. Did manage to get Southern Damselfly which was a pretty cool little damsel, found only in one location in the new forest. Other new species for the year were small red, keeled skimmer and Golden ringed Dragonfly.

Birds included Wood Warbler, Redstart and Raven, managed not to see Nightjar, Dartford Warbler and Puffin, which were hoped for.

1 New moth species- Burnet companion,
1 new Butterfly- Lulworth Skipper.

2 New bird species- Roller (what a bird!!) and a new Warbler (amazing singer!)
Many thanks for the texts, calls and emails!

Apart from that the moths were very good on Monday night, lots of micros, unfortunately 50% of the catch flew away before being potted/identified, shame, but still managed 85 species. Traps are on again tonight so may do a moth special tomorrow if there is much in them.

I have updated my stats on the side, which have not been updated for a while. I am way off target for many of my new years aims but am enjoying the year, still not seen many easy birds this year ie all auks, but there is time to add to this.

Must update more often, been busy as always recently.

Poor effort, I know

Lack of blog updates recently is due to the fact that I am getting married tomorrow! I'm still alive, I just have had other things to sort out.

Last weekend I managed to see the broad Billed Sandpiper at Breydon water, satisfactory views, but a little on the distant side. It was a new uk bird for me so was a surprise bonus, i managed to fit it in before getting my wedding suit at 10 from Norwich so was quite pleased with myself.
Annoyingly I am aware of another 'tick' out there in Norfolk somewhere, everyone seems to have seen it but I still have not asked the right people about its location, supposedly a 'private' site. Lots of people have trespassed if that's the case, I could well be wrong, we DO need to protect these species' in decline so hush hush is the right approach, its just very annoying when everyone is saying how great the bird was and then even putting loads of photos up on public sites. I'll have to find my own I guess, there is still time.

On another note I'm looking forward to a week in Dorset next week, hopefully will pick up some of the specialities such as Southern and Scarce blue tailed damselflies as well as the classic heathland birds, and moths(?)

I leave you with some classic images of Azure Damselflies, in the first there seems to be an in depth conversation occuring between two males, or possibly a bit of a punch up! (zoom in for full effect)

Norfolk Hawkers and Swallowtails + a waspbee to id

Just had a Norfolk Hawker in the 'garden' a nice surprise and slightly unexpected seeing as there is no water very close by. Had a day off yesterday in which I did my volunteer farmland bird survey at a farm on the river Ant, a good survey, nothing unexpected but nice to go somewhere different. On the way home I stopped off at a private site to have a look at some dragonflies and anything else that appeared.

The day list included all the regularly seen odes, firsts for the year for me included Norfolk Hawker and a few Emperors, there were stacks of Hairy, Red eyed, Variable, Blue tailed and Azure Damselflies, they seemed to be absolutely everywhere as well as 4 spotted chasers.

A few photos to show off some nice odes and Swallowtails, click to enlarge





Finally can anyone ID this Wasp, or is it some sort of nomad bee? It was on the Fen S of the river and looks like it could be interesting, well it could be.

EDIT: It is Argogorytes mystaceus

Pink haze

As i woke up this morning I was just stretching when I recieved a text from a colleague telling me there was a rather interesting bird at Strumpshaw. I rubbed my eyes again got my things together and was off.
I was met by the sight of a Greater Flamingo right in front of Tower Hide, even though I knew it was the escape that has been roaming the countries RSPB reserves. It originated from a zoo in Hampshire so has 'migrated' a fair distance throughout its romp in the wilds.

Perhaps better than the flamingo (certainly in terms of origin) was a great drake Gargany right in the middle of the Tower hide pool, a welcome and overdue addition to my Strumpshaw list.



Also on the reserve (apparently) was a great white egret, I only saw little, also a Glossy Ibis flew over and landed in the same pool the flamingo frequented. I did not find out about that until gone five which was a bit of a let down, although I was busy so I'd have missed it anyway. I should imagine the Glossy Ibis will be at Buckenham or Cantley tomorrow if it still in the area as these seem to be the wettest places around.

And finally a couple of nice micros found in the morning sun; 1361- Pyausta aurata and 649 Esperia sulphurella