Surely not another morning on the nature reserve

The Safari spotted a midge/gnatty thing on the outside of the kitchen window late yesterday afternoon and went to get the super-macro. What fantastically feathery head-gear! Shame the pic had to be taken through two panes of dirty glass with near darkness outside.

This morning we were able to have a couple of hours at the nature reserve in some bright almost warm sunshine, warm enough for a visiting birder to be wandering around in shorts. Like the other day there were a decent number of Blackbirds about although maybe not quite so many.

One of the far far too many dog walkers with unleashed dogs told us an owl had been seen earlier. The amount of doggy disturbance this morning was seriously shocking - if only the main path wasn't a Public Footpath and the gate could be locked...wouldn't stop them one would be down with bolt croppers within hours no doubt and before then most of them would have climbed over anyway; they're a nightmare! 

Passing a few flushed Fieldfares we walked down to another out-of-town birder who was obviously looking for the owl but in the wrong place. We joined him and showed him where we'd seen it the day before yesterday but couldn't see it in there today. With both of us looking for about half an hour we eventually found it for him...in the tree it was in the day before yesterday but now the sun had moved round it was seeable - just.

We took it in turns to stand in the only specific spot from which it could be seen when a Chiffchaff flew past behind it. A Redwing perched briefly behind it too and had a little feather flurry but was more than slightly obscured by the closer tall summer's dead vegetation.

Moving on we saw more very wary Fieldfares and Redwings a shy Great Spotted Woodpecker a fly-over Skylark and a Cetti's Warbler out in the open ever so briefly in the scrub. Further on we met MJ and EP who were setting off on the wrong path for a look at the Long Eared Owl so rather than describe where it was with the risk of them not finding it we retraced our steps and showed them the bird. By now the sun had moved round a bit more and a slightly better vantage point had been found. Slightly being the operative word!

Thank goodness for  manual focus!

Once again we'd lingered too long and it was time to head back to Base Camp before we'd had a chance to look properly at the waterfowl.

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 in the morning where there have been some good birds seen while we've not been able to look.

In the meantime let us know who's almost invisible in your outback.

Still windy but that sunshine is v. nice indeedy

The Safari was out early this morning, as soon as the sun hit our neighbour's dry stone bank along the edge of her garden. Here there is a colony of Mining Bees, perhaps two or more species. However, it was the Gooden's Nomad Bees we were after. Little beauts they are.

The sting could possibly be a tibial spur, couldn't see it on any other pics though...are they 'retractable', lying flat along the tibia at other times? Might have to get more pics tomorrow - there is one shot we haven't managed yet

Struggle a bit with Bumble Bees, this one is Red Tailed Bumble Bee, they never keep still and invariably have their face down in the flower. That combined with black eyes on a black face makes them a tricky subject...must try harder!

The bank has some lovely trailing patches of Wild Thyme which is well liked by the bees.

After a cuppa and a bit of breakfast we attended to the moth trap...but where were the moths? All we got was another Codling Moth and this unIDd midge thingy.

Last night we tried some snaps at the crescent moon. Not particularly happy with the result and we were hoping to catch some of the 'earth-shine that was visible later on. Sadly it drops behind the trees at the end of the garden at about this phenomenon occurs...don't particularly want to cut the trees down just for moon pics but we'll try again tonight to see if we can improve on this one.

Where to next? Perhaps another early safari tomorrow as it's a bit warm during the heat of the day for Frank to be out...he really enjoyed an evening swim in the sea today and we can conform the water was warmer than it was in Greece last week.
In the meantime let us know what's not performing for the lenses in your outback.

Just a quick weather note - yesterday was the hottest 25th May so far; today beat the previous 26th May's best  (2008) by a full 8C...both days sending the digital mercury to 26C...didn't feel like that in the 30mph (50kph) wind...what will tomorrow bring, a drop in the wind would help the invert photography.

Oh; and we had diddy Dunnocks in the garden this arvo - nice!