Swallowtails & Lizards

A day at Norfolk Wildlife Trust Hickling Broad was a real delight ,unlike our two previous visits we managed to witness the Swallowtails on the wing.We were met by this lovely Peacock that was always up for a photo shoot as well as cleaning up around the picnic tables etc,the board walk area at Hickling was the best place to see the Swallowtails which gave rise to its own set of problems trying to photograph them as well as trying not to stand on any of the hundreds of Common Lizards that were everywhere on the boardwalks ( it's been a real good year for the Lizards).

 Here's a few close ups of the locals !

 No Common Cranes nesting this year although they did come for a look but decided to go elsewhere and Bittern sightings are low possibly due to all the sea defence work that is tacking place there at the moment,moving on up to Cley marshes for my next post.

Minsmere (part 2)

Whilst getting ready for our last day at Minsmere I spotted (excuse the pun)this Spotted Flycatcher in the bushes to the side,there ended up being three Flycatchers one of which was a youngster.Back to Minsmere and the reported Glossy Ibis was no where to be seen but we did come across this Spoonbill on the edge of one of the pools just managing a couple of pics before it took off for pastures new, moving along to the other hide in the hope of meeting up with the Hobbies again this common Tern was quite obliging for a second or so.Never had another chance at the Hobbies or the Marsh Harriers, moving on up to Hickling Broad Norfolk tomorrow in the hope of seeing some Swallowtails.

As we were leaving Minsmere we came across this quite striking fungi (Chicken of the woods)we were told by one of the tree management people who was also eying it up to see how much damage it had done to the tree if any.

Minsmere (Part 1 )

Four days spent at Minsmere and surrounding area were not disappointing in the least,firstly we were lucky in that we didn't get the monsoon type weather that you did back here in the Northeast and secondly Minsmere never seems to disappoint.This year it seems to have been the turn of the Marsh Harriers and the Hobbies ,all the pics were taken at 700mm and I still have a bit to learn regarding my b.i.f shots with the Hobbies being so fast I only managed one in flight shot.

The next pic of the Harrier caught me by surprise as it spotted some pray and was just about to strike,     they are a real fearsome looking bird when you get close.

Nuclear Bees !!

Our latest trip down to Minsmere on the Suffolk coast saw us taking a break from birding one late afternoon and doing a coastal walk past Sizewell Nuclear Power Plant, where my good lady stumbled across a small colony of Bee Orchids (she looks down and I look up) numbering up to about a dozen and included in this was a number of white Bee Orchids "Chlorantha"Var .We had never seen these before and found them quite interesting,apparently they can found on various Bee Orchid sites.I have included a crop of the "Clorantha".