Painted Lady!!!

I visited my grandparents yesterday, and I wanted to get a look at their Buddlea plant. Last year, they had a Painted Lady on it, and I wanted to see if they had one this year. One quick glance and I could see a Painted Lady on it. Incredible...

Happy Birding!

Norfolk Trip Part 1

This holiday is going to be split in to parts, one of the first 3 days, and then of the last 2 days.

Sunday afternoon, we didn't really see much, or take any pics. We just went to Waxham, Horsey and Sea Palling beaches. We didn't see much in the way of birds, but at Horsey I had my first Wall Brown butterfly of the year in the dunes. We didn't have a camera though... typical. We saw a delightful seal family offshore too, with a pup, which was very cute. Waxham didn't produce much but a big Tern colony on the rocks, including Common and Sandwich mainly, but to far away to id further. Sea Palling didn't produce anything apart from tourists and locals on the beach having a great time.

Monday we visited Cley, Salthouse and Holkham. More Wall Browns at Holkham, not much at Cley apart from a few Ruff and a Little Gull. On the beach at Salthouse was Cormorants, and a couple of Dunlin heading towards Cley. We got a Brimstone at the Caravan Site though.

Butterflies From Before Holiday - Landguard, Bradfield Woods and my Grandparents.

Bradfield Woods:

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Purple Hairstreaks

Ringlet

Silver Y

Silver-washed Fritillary

White Admiral

Grandparents:

Their Buddlea

Large White and Small Tortoishell

Awesome Painted Lady

Peacock

 Landguard:

Clouded Yellows

Common Blue

Starling with a Ring

Went to Landguard on Tuesday afternoon to try and see the Wryneck, spent a couple hours searching around the area it had been seen but had no luck. Saw Black Redstart, Whinchat and several Wheatear though.

PICTURES TO BE ADDED

I only wanted one, not 9!

I was with my Grandparents for a majority of the day, and in the morning, granddad took me to Christchurch Park. I was hoping to add Mandarin onto the year list, to make it 128. I had never seen a drake Mandarin before, and I wasn't expecting to see one. In total, we saw 6 Drakes with 3 Females. Incredible.

We have also never seen the resident female Tawny Owl, named "Mabel." We didn't even know where her tree was. We got directions, and found the tree, but she wasn't in, obviously skiving. LOL. Other birds about were Stock Dove, Siskin, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Jay.

I will update the Daily Sightings page after this post, sorry if you are frustrated about it not being updated. One of the highlights of the week so far was my first Tawny Owl of the year at Stowmarket Golf Club. It was on hole 17, where two birds were calling at 4pm, then one flew across the fairway. Not bad for a 127th specie for this year! Mum and I are going to Levington Creek this afternoon, and maybe a visit to Felixstowe to see if any Waxwing are around - 50 yesterday. 

Happy Birding!

A Day With My Grandparents!

It seems odd that I am doing a wildlife based post, to do with my Grandparents, but there it goes. I had the day their due to my mums work absence, so they took me to Christchurch Park in Ipswich in the afternoon. More of that later, because a quite eventful day in their garden.

Because my granddad has got a golf hole in his lawn, we spent a lot of time outside playing golf, and getting holes-in-ones in the scorching heat. A good sight for his garden was a Long-tailed Tit party moving through his conifers, 4 or 5 birds in total. Plenty of Butterflies were entering the garden, with a Green Hairstreak, Small Tortoishell, and Large White all visible. Lunch came early for me, Fish and Chips was on the plate, gorgeous as ever, (my grandmother makes fantastic dinners.)

All sun-creamed up, and Granddad and I headed for Christchurch Park, looking for the Mandarin Ducks. I wanted to get pictures and a video if possible, but I have seen the Mandarins at Christchurch before. Well this is what we got......

 3 Mandarin Ducks

2 Mandarin Ducks out of those

In total, 5 Mandarin Ducks, and as I say on the video, I only thought that there was one here.

Happy Birding!