The First Half of October, 2023

Having returned from our visit to the Isles of Scilly on 3rd October, I found myself with nearly two and a half thousand photos to process. This took about three weeks to complete, and limited my time out in the field. I did, however, manage three short excursions, but also found myself distracted by birds in the garden while at my desk, working on the photos. Here are some of my observations from the first half of October.

Thursday, 5th October          Garden

Stock Dove was absent for a few weeks, but is now being seen on an almost daily basis. Occasionally we get two of them.

Stock Dove (Columba oenas) - Garden

Carrion Crow has become a frequent visitor to the garden, and also we sometimes get two together. I think that face radiates intelligence.

Carrion Crow (Covus corone) - Garden

Woodpigeons are also frequent visitors - it's a rare day that we don't see one in the garden - but we rarely see youngsters, such as this one.

Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) (immature) - Garden

Sunday, 8th October          Garden

 

Our over-the-back neighbour has a box hung on the dividing fence which he fills with peanuts in their shells. These seem to be exclusively attractive to the local squirrels which take great delight in burying them in our garden, although sometimes they will stop and enjoy the contents - as this one did, sitting on the wall of our mini-pond, which I photographed from my study window.

 

Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) - Garden

Monday, 9th October          Saltersford Valley Country Park

 

Lookking for a dragonfly fix on a fine weather day, I headed to my favourite local dragonfly location - Saltersford Valley.

I started off by spending time on the boardwalk, which is usually the best location for finding dragonflies. There were several Common Darters here, mostly landing on the boardwalk , which is not very photogenic. Occasionally, however, one would perch on some vegetaion.

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

At one point, a pair of Common Darter appeared in tandem, but I was only able to photograph them on the boardwalk.

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (male+female in tandem) - Saltersford Valley CP

I spent quite a long while trying to photograph one of the two Migrant Hawker dragonflies that were patrolling round the boardwalk. I failed to get any flight shots and if they landed it was always away from the boardwalk and partly obscured by the Reedmace. This was, unfortunately, my best shot.

 

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

I seemed to be getting nowhere fast, so decided to take a walk round the site.

 

A Western Honey Bee looked rather fine on wild Angelica.

 

Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) - Saltersford Valley CP

I found a few more Common Darter which, to my advantage, didn't have a boardwalk that they could settle on. 

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

The bright red berries of Guelder-rose stood out like a beacon.

Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) - Saltersford Valley CP

A return to the boardwalk gave me an unobstructed view of a perched Migrant Hawker, but at a distance and at an awkward angle for photography.

 

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

I came away, concious that, apart from the tandem Common Darters, I'd only seen male dragonflies. This however, is not an unusual situation, as males have a tendency to patrol near water, while females tend to come to water to primarily mate or oviposit.

 

I had hoped to find Willow Emerald Damselfly here, as I had not yet positively seen one this season, but I failed. 

Tuesday, 10th October          Thortit Lake Area

I'd had an eye injection in the morning, after which I was supposed to take it easy for 48 hours, and not drive for at least four hours. However, at around 16.00, the effect of the dilation drops had worn off, my eye was not feeling too uncomfortable, and so I decided on a gentle visit to my nearest dragon site, Thortit Lake, to try once more for Willow Emerald.

Having parked my car, as I entered the site, I found five Common Darter roosting on the gate. I was a little surprised to see that these were all females.

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (female) - near Thortit Lake

As I approached the lake, a Red Admiral kept landing on the path ahead of me and then flying ahead as I got nearer.

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) - Thortit Lake

As I approached the water's edge, a pair of Mute Swan with four youngsters in tow came towards me, obviously expecting to be fed. They soon realised that I would not oblige, and turned away again. My shots including the youngsters were not good, but here's one of one of the adults.

 

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) (male) - Thortit Lake

I saw two or three Migrant Hawker dragonflies, but not in a position to be photographed. A Coot went swimming by as I was about to head back to base, mindful of the fact that I was supposed to be taking it easy.

Coot (Fulica atra) - Thortit Lake

As I neared the exit gate, I saw that some of the female Common Darters were still on the gate.

Wednesday, 11th October          Garden

Another shot of one of the Stock Doves that visited that day, taken through the glass of my study window.

 

Stock Dove (Columba oenas) - Garden

Thursday, 12th October          Garden

We had been seeing very little of Wren over the past couple of months, and so were absolutely delighted when one showed up this day - not the best of shots, taken from the conservatory, through the double-glazing at an angle.

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)  - Garden

Saturday, 14th October          Garden

It has been a quite good year for Comma butterflies. This one visited us this day and sunned itself on Lindsay's nook in the garden.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) - Garden

Sunday, 15th October          Calke Park : Garden

Against my better judgement - it was a fine weather Sunday during the schools half-term holiday -  I set out for a visit to Calke Park. I found myself in a queue for the entrance booths when I was about 500 metres from them, and would have turned back if the road had not been 'one-way'. 

I first headed for Calke Explore, where there is a hide overlooking a bird feeding station. The car park was full, but I managed to squeeze our small Smart car into a gap in the overflow car park.

 

I fully expected to find the bird hide full of unruly children but, to my surprise, there were just four people in there (it has capacity for six) and they left as I arrived (I didn't think I looked that threatening!). 

 

I stayed for about half an hour, but not much was going on and the branches used as photographic props had all been removed, so I photographed very little.

 

The rats were plentiful and very busy seeking food.

Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) - Calke Park

The few photos I did take didn't turn out too well and probably the best of a bad bunch was this of a very common, but nonetheless delightful, bird - a Blue Tit.

 

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) - Calke Park

With little going on here, I decided to try the other hide on the estate. This is by the main car park near the house. As the house came into sight, I was surprised to see that the overflow car park was full of cars, and a second (unofficial?) overflow car park was in operation. This was, by far, the busiest that I have ever seen Calke Park. Amazingly, however, I managed to find myself a vacant spot in the main car park within a few metres of the hide.

 

I also found that, with just two people in the hide when I got there, I had room to sit in comfort. There was more going on from this hide, although nothing very exciting was seen. The birds were zooming in to the feeders which were suspended on a tensioned wire that went from one side of the clearing to the other. The best photographic opportunities were when the birds approached but were still in the neighbouring trees. Here are a few of the shots that I took.

Nuthhatch (Sitta europaea) - Calke Park

Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) (female) - Calke Park

Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) (male) - Calke Park

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) - Calke Park

Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) (male) - Calke Park

Nuthhatch (Sitta europaea) - Calke Park

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) (male) - Calke Park

The arrival to the hide of a group of people acted as a signal for me to depart. I stopped for a while just outside the hide to view the deer in the Deer Park.

 

My attention was drawn to a young Fallow Deer that was bounding across the grass at a good speed.

Fallow Deer (Dama dama) - Calke Park

The reason for its haste soon became apparent!

Fallow Deer (Dama dama) - Calke Park

Over on the far side of this area there was a Fallow Deer with what I can only suggest, by the antlers, was a young male Red Deer.

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) and Fallow Deer (Dama dama) - Calke Park

I then drove round to what is known as The Round Car Park and walked down to the south-west arm of Staunton Harold Reservoir and then headed westward to reach the weir that is the inflow from Calke Park. This is the view eastward from near that location. On my previous visit, the water in the reservoir was so depleted that, with wellington boots on, it would have been possible to walk across the reservoir on a right to left trajectory that approximates to that thin dark line behind the brighter blue strip.

Staunton Harold Reservoir

From near the inflow, on the far side of the water, I spotted a Heron that was looking for its afternoon tea.

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) - Staunton Harol Reservoir

As I headed back, a Little Egret arrived, landing in the trees on the far side of the water.

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - Staunton Harold Reservoir

An immature Great Crested Grebe was closer as I went along the boardwalk section of the path.

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) - Staunton Harold Reservoir

I arrived back home in time to witness the Sparrowhawk making a nuisance of itself once more. This immature male has been visiting on a 'several times a day' basis, but its hit-rate is relatively low. The visits are, however, frequent enough that many of the other birds have got wise and are staying away from our garden.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (immature male) - our garden

As it stands at the moment, my next post will cover the second half of October, and be somewhat shorter than this one as I did not manage to get out with my camera during that period.

In the meantime, please take good care of yourselves and Nature. Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard

 

Isles of Scilly, 2023 Pt.2 - 26th September, 2023

I had, originally, intended to have this second instalment of my account cover another two days of our recent holiday on the Isles of Scilly. I then realised that just this one day would result in a blog post that was more than long enough - sorry folks! 

If you missed Pt.1, you can find it by going to the bottom of this post and then clicking on 'Older Post'.

Tuesday, 26th September

In spite of having had a poor night's sleep, I was up relatively early for us - 07.00. I then had a relaxed breakfast, after which, my first job of the day was to go and pick up the buggy that we'd hired for six days from the excellent Scilly Carts, taking Melanie along with me.

 

As there were five of us, I'd booked the hire of a six-seater cart. We trotted off to Scilly Carts, arriving soon after opening time and, after filling in the necessary forms, were headed back to base. I'd been concerned that the abrupt transition from level road and pavement to a steeply sloped drive might be a problem due to the long wheelbase of the low-slung six-seater. On arrival, we carefully tried puting the cart on the drive and found that we only had about 2 cm clearance with just me in the cart. With five of us in, I suspect that it would have grounded. A quick call to Scilly Carts and we were headed back to exchange the cart for a four-seater. This did, of course, mean that our options for travel were slightly limited. This is the cart that we ended up with.

The forecast for the day was for warm, but rather breezy, weather with sunny spells - and this is what it turned out to be.

 

Having missed out on seeing a Wryneck the previous afternoon, I was  determined to have another try. I set off, on foot, along Porthcressa seafront, dipping into Becky's Scilly Cakes  to choose my cake that the girls would pick up later.

I then headed towards the path that runs on the west side of Peninnis to Peninnis Head. As I passed the allotments, I stopped by a large patch of ivy to photograph some of the many Ivy Bees that were enjoying it. Ivy Bees have become very common on the Isles of Scilly.

 

Ivy Bee (Colletes hedera) - Porthcressa Allotments

A couple of Red Admirals were also in attendance.

 

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) - Porthcressa Allotments

I continued along the Peninnis West Path, seeing a few Small Copper butterflies as I went.

 

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) - Peninnis West Path

Before reaching the head, I saw a couple of pipits on a drystone wall. My ID skills are sadly lacking when it comes to pipits, but I reckon the most likely candidate is Meadow Pipit, which is very common in this area.

 

probable Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) - Peninnis

I spent half an hour on Peninnis head at the spot where the Wrynecks had been seen the previous day. No Wryneck was seen, but I did get some shots of a Wheatear - a species that never fails to excite me.

 

Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) (female) - Peninnis

There had been a stiff westerly breeze along the west side of Peninnis and on the head, so I set off down the east side towards Old Town. As I neared the point where the path levels off and passes through the drystone wall, I put up a bird that I'd not noticed, which flew and dropped down into the ground vegetation. It then flew out again and landed on the drystone wall at a distance. My usual modus operandi is to take the photos first and then check for ID.  Through my binoculars, I was not sure of its identity, but when I zoomed in on my photos I found I'd photographed a Wryneck! These are very heavily cropped images.

 

Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) - Peninnis East Path

As I approached Old Town Church I spotted a Speckled Wood butterfly that looked a bit unusual. The Speckled Woods on the Isles of Scilly are a different sub-species to those found on the mainland. The main distinguishing feature is that where the mainland sub-species tircis have pale cream markings, the sub-species insula on the Scillies have markings that are more orange. This particular specimen had much smaller markings than usual. 

 

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria insula) - near Old Town

I continued through Old Town Churchyard, seeing nothing of interest, and walked down the road to Old Town and turned off to Lower Moors.

At the ISBG hide at Lower Moors, there were two Snipe. Again, just distant shots were obtained. I didn't get any shots of the Migrant Hawkers that were sticking to the far side of the pool.

 

Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) - Lower Moors

On the approach to the hide, on the railings as I left, were two Common Darter dragonflies. Here's one of them.

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) (male) - Lower Moors

Just along from the ISBG hide I also photographed a Speckled Wood  butterfly.  This was, in appearance, much as I would expect this species to be. I think that you will agree that it looks rather different to the one shown earlier.

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria insula) - near Old Town

I carried on to Rosehill Garden, hoping to find more dragonflies, but only found another Common Darter.

Continuing to Porthloo,  I found a few birds on the beach, including some Pied Wagtails, but only photographed a Rock Pipit. 

 

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - Porthloo

 It was now time to get back to base and fix myself a very late lunch. 

That afternoon, Melanie drove me out to the entrance to Higher Moors where I had frustratingly distant views of a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper that blended in so well with the background that I couldn't find it in my viewfinder. I took a few shots with the camera pointing in roughly the right direction and found that I'd actually managed to include the bird in just one of the shots. Here is a very heavily cropped image, from which you can problably understand the difficulty I had.

 

Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) - Porthellick Pool

After about half an hour I lost the bird and gave up as I'd tentatively arranged to meet the girls at Porth Minick beach where they were going to collect sea-glass.

I took the path that goes over Salakee Down, seeing little as I did so. My timing was such that, as I approached the airport runway turning circle,  the sirens started and I had to wait for a plane to taxi up to the circle and turn before taking off.

 

Continuing on my way on the south side  of Salakee Down, the only bird photographed was a Meadow Pipit.

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) -Salakee Down

From the path to Porth Minick, there are views over to Peninnis. I rather liked this view of the nearer rocky coast.

View from Salakee Down

As Porth Minick came into view, I couldn't see the girls there. I was only a few hundred metres from the beach when I got a message to say that they'd turned back because there was little beach showing as the tide was well-in (a spring tide), and were heading for base. I went onto what was left of the beach and found  two Turnstone there. I sat on a rock and waited patiently and soon one of them came close and allowed some relatively intimate photos.

 

Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) - Porth Minick

A Rock Pipit was similarly obliging.

 

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - Porth Minick

Whilst on the beach, a Coastguard helicopter passed overhead. I tend to be curious about such aircraft, and looked up details of this one from its registration. I was sorry to learn that it had been involved in a fatal accident on 4th March, 2022. When landing at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, the downdraught had blown over an 87 year old woman on a nearby footpath, who sustained a serious head injury. It also injured another woman in her 80s who was exiting her car in a nearby car park, when the downdraught caused the car door to slam on her, breaking her pelvis.

 

Coastguard Sikorsky S-92A - G-MCGY - over Porth Minick

The approach to Old Town from Porth Minick is lined with Amaryllis Belladonna, as are so many places on the islands. I couldn't resist a photo of a flower that, to me, epitomises the flora of the Isles of Scilly. 

 

Amaryllis belladonna - Old Town

A Glossy Ibis had been reported at Lower Moors, but was nowhere to be seen when I got there. I didn't stay long, but took the coastal path past Old Town church to Carn Lêh, where some climbers were busy.

 

Climber on Carn Lêh

On a rock in Carn Lêh Cove there were two Shags and a Herring Gull.

 

Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) + Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)  - Carn Lêh Cove

I then followed the path up onto Peninnis in the hope of a better sighting of Wryneck, but it didn't happen. It was good to see both male and female Stonechat as I was beginning to be concerned that I was not seeing this species on Peninnis - a usually reliable area for this species.

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) (female) - Peninnis

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) (male) - Peninnis

I also took some shots of Dunnock and Meadow Pipit.

 

Dunnock (Prunella modularis) - Peninnis

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) - Peninnis

I walked down King Edward's Road and by Peninnis Farm thought, momentarily, that I'd found a Stock Dove, until it ran towards me, flashing its leg bands! It was a racing pigeon looking to be fed. As I write this, on 18th October, this bird was spotted on 17th October in Porth Mellon. It seems it was supposed to be flying from North Wales to Belfast but got lost on the way, and has decided that it likes the Isles of Scilly - and who can blame it!

Racing Pigeon - Peninnis Farm

Almost back at base, I went onto Littleporth beach to photograph a pair of Turnstone. 

 

Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) - Littleporth

It had been a record breaking day for me with my fitness tracker recording 24,087 steps (11.92 miles / 17.58 km). I am rather happy with this achievement as much of it was up-hill and down-dale and over uneven or rough terrain.

That night we were requested to batten down the hatches as winds of up to 55 mph (89 kph) were forecast for the following day, accompanied by heavy rain.

 

My bird ID skills are far from well honed and are, I believe, weakening (age and deteriorating eyesight) . If you disagree with any of my IDs, please let me know - I will be most grateful!

I suspect that my next blog post in, as usual, about a week's time will just cover the next two days of our stay on the Isles of Scilly. In the meantime, please take care of yourselves and Nature.

Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard