Pheasant Family

Male and Female

Found on the edge of a Bird Reserve on the parkland, these are wild Pheasant and not forming part of a reared Shoot. 

I was able to observe three young pheasant poults together with the male and female. They were all in tall grass and the young emerged infrequently so I was not sure of the number altogether.

Female

Poult

Male and Female

Poult

Poult

Male and Female

Poult

Flutter Finale

On a previous post where I featured butterflies I said it would probably be one of the last for the year. 

Well I couldn't resist this Painted Lady feeding on Buddleia the other day.

Green Woodpecker (Immature) - Plus a Surprise

I found this male immature Green Woodpecker sitting in the centre of a tree in the Parkland.

Unusually it waited around so that I could take a few shots through the branches.

Later on the same walk I came across another immature of the species. I think this one was a female.

It suddenly too flight as soon as I observed it.

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NB: For the Info of local Birding/Nature colleagues 

A Surprise.

As usual when one observes something different or unusual, one does not have the right camera available. I went out during the late afternoon to take a few landscapes and ended up on a road that runs alongside a river. 

My 'Spotter' observed movement in the centre of the river which as you can see below turned out to be an Otter.

I only had a camera with a 18-105mm lens attached and had to crop these shots to get an ID record.

For local colleagues the position was about 300 metres North of Deeping HB Water Tower.

Spotted and Lesser

Always a target bird for me during the Autumn migration, the Spotted Flycatcher. 

Its interesting to watch it catching flies and frequently returning to the perch, which was also helpful as I could remain in the same covert location to take more images.

Two for the price of one. 

The Spotted Flycatcher that I was observing was joined by a Lesser Whitethroat.

You can observe from the images that I had to shoot through thick hawthorn bushes to get them.

The Lesser Whitethroat was far more difficult to observe as it skulks about in the thick bushes most of the time.

In my very amateurish assessment the yellow edging along its bill suggests to me that its a first year bird and this will be its first long flight South. 

Whitethroat

I went searching for migrating species around the Parkland on a hot sunny day.

It was good to find this Whitethroat feeding away on Blackberries and Elderberries in the sunshine.

It needs to build its strength up for the long journey South to the Southern edge of the Sahara Desert.

Fortunately there is copious amounts of both of these berries around at the moment.

A Final Flurry of Flutters

We are fortunate to observe several really colourful Butterfly species in UK.

This is likely to be one of the last butterfly posts of the year.

Peacock

A lot of fuss is made about the Purple Emperor, but surely there is no more colourful species than the Peacock. Dependent on the available light you also get a variation in colouring.

Comma

Red Admiral

The other day I was complaining that I had not seen many Common Blue Butterflies about.

In the last week they have suddenly put in an appearance, which is better late than never.

Large White

Small Tortoiseshell