A lunchtime wander through the dunes

I took a longer lunch break today to have a wander through the dunes whilst the sun shone between the days of rain. The dunes really are at their best right now, carpeted in bloody cranesbill, common restharrow, lady's bedstraw and cats ears.

Dune flora

Bloody cranesbill Geranium sanguineum

Common restharrow Ononis repens

My target was to photograph dark green fritillaries - they were on the wing now but rarely rest and when they do they're easily spooked. I think that the 400mm lens is better for this species. I managed a single distant shot.

Dark green fritillary Argynnis aglaja

My other plan was to look for hoverflies, hoping that there would be something different to the species that I find along the track and in the bushes. There wasn't much variety but some nice hovers and better photos of some species I've seen before.

Cheilosia illustrata

I saw Cheilosia illustrata for the first time last week so it was nice to get a better pic.

Sphaerophoria sp (female)

Sphaerophoria scripta (male)

Eupeodes corollea (male)

Eupeodes corollea (female)

I also found this groovy blue beetle. It's one of the Altica species of metallic flea beetle, probably Altica lythri.

Altica - probably A. lythri

As well as the dark green fritillaries, there were ringlets, common blue, meadow brown, small tortoiseshell and small heath on the wing in the dunes.

A worn-looking ringlet

Common blue (female)

I only found one cinnabar moth but plenty of their caterpillars on ragwort. Narrow-bordered five-spot burnet moths were everywhere and I found more Pammene aurana on cow parsley - the species I found last week.

Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae and caterpillar

Narrow-bordered Five-spot burnet moth Zygaena lonicerae

Pammene aurana

I only walked about 150m in an hour and a half but there was plenty to see - all very enjoyable.

Field grasshopper Chorthippus brunneus

Blue-tailed damselfly Ischnura elegans

mostly misty

Here's a weekend round up from a mostly fog-bound Druridge.

This shot of three mute swans flying south on Saturday morning nicely summarises the weekends weather.

mute swans through the gloom that was Saturday's weather

The long-eared owl family are still about, encouraging lots of visiting birders to Druridge, which in itself is a rare thing nowadays. Have a look at John Malloy's blog for some excellent LEO shots On Sunday evening, the young barn owls in the box at the farm were venturing out to have a look around and a wing-stretch whilst they waited to be fed, it won't be long until they're fledging.

A juvenile yellow wagtail feeding with a group of juvvy pied wags was my first of the year, they were up by the 'Druridge bushes' feeding were the cattle grazed.

A whimbrel flying south was my first of the autumn.I think fly-bys are going to be the only waders I'm going to see on the patch this year. The big pool is brim-full so no edge for waders there, this doesn't bother me because it isn't possible to control the water levels on the big pool. What does bother me is the lack of grazing on the Budge fields. The ponies are better than nothing, just, but they're aren't enough of them and they are too selective. What is needed is cows, big, hungry cows at that. I intend to take this issue up with NWT to see if there is anything the birdwatching community can do to assist.

There are a few family parties of warblers, reed bunting and the like moving around, we really need to start ringing at Druridge now....if the rain ever stops.

I've been practising with the new SLR again - here are some non-birdy shots.

The wildflowers in the dunes are at their best right now

buff-tailed bumblebee visiting viper's bugloss

A cinnabar moth caterpillar on ragwort

close-up view of a common spotted orchid

speckled wood butterfly by the Oddie hide. A recent colonist to Druridge

narrow-bordered five spot burnet moth

Silver Y moth  - there was an influx of these into Druridge at the weekend with dozens seen  in the dunes