Charlecote Park Again!

We went with our good friends Tim & Wendy to Charlecote Park yesterday, mainly for a catch up and walk, but of course even at this time of year there are birds about, in fact much better than our last visit a couple of weeks ago.

This time the Swallows were buzzing around like mad things just6 inches off the ground, fattening themselves up on any flying insect before migrating back to Africa in a few weeks time. The House Martins were busy too but much higher up. Both were much too nippy for me to get a photo.

While we had a coffee on one of the picnic benches by the river we had distant views of some Herons over in the Heronry,

only three were showing plus a single Cormorant. The River had a couple of Reed Bunting darting backwards and forwards and a Kingfisher was spotted a couple of times.

After coffee we went for a walk over the river and quickly spotted a couple of Green Woodpecker up in a distant tree,

just above them in the branches were what looked like a family of Spotted Flycatcher, even with the binoculars we weren't a 100% sure, but the overall look and behaviour suggested that they were.

There were plenty of Deer about on both sides of the park, with Stags looking very majestic now:

The feeders near the house were busy with Great, Blue and Coal Tit, plus this very young Robin:

Out in thge grounds the usual suspects were also seen, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard and Mute Swan, sadly no birds of prey today which was unusual. Biggest bonus of all though was that it stayed dry for the whole afternoon.

A great day out again!

It's time for some Heavy Metal!

So with things quieter on the birding front it was time to visit an airshow. Due to other commitments we missed Cosford this year, couldn't get to Fairford for the Air Tattoo so plumped for Farnborough.

Have to say whilst there was some outstanding displays, some were a real let down! But I won't moan here I will save that for another forum, so here are some highlights:

You can find the rest at:
Farnborough 2016

Charlecote Park National Trust, not just birds!

Making the most of a good weather forecast we zoomed down the M40 to Charlecote Park yesterday, mainly for a nice walk in a beautiful place. The birding was sparse but we did manage Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Blue, Great and Coal Tit, as well as the expected House Martins, but very few Swallows that are normally abundant, don't know what's going on there.

We had overflights of Buzzard and a Peregrine which were very nice, but sadly no real photo opportunities.

The deer were about in numbers:

There were many butterflies about and took much better notice than usual, with a first sighting (in large numbers) of Marbled White, shame the don't keep still, Butterfly photographers must have the patience of saints! I did manage a couple of poor shots of,
a Small Tortoise Shell,

 and what I think night be a Gatekeeper,

our butterfly id'ing is rubbish and photography with a 500mm lens is also difficult. Finally the Demoiselle were also very busy, managed a couple of shots of a couple of Banded Demoiselle:

 this one is a female I think!