My week. (Part One) "Whitethroat Field"

What's this funny thing? I believe it's called a "blog".

Okay okay. I know I spend most of my posts saying sorry for not posting in a while. I won't try to catch you up totally with what's been going on, but the nice weather we've had in Scotland has encouraged me to get out with my camera quite a bit and so I'm going to write about a few outings I've had this week. I'll separate them into two blog entries so as to make it easier on us both!

Firstly, a field I found near my house which seems quite the hotbed for wildlife. I've been there a few of times now. It's fantastic. First time was with my girlfriend Lorna. We just wandered down there and were very quickly greeted by Swallows, which we had thought we heard last year when we visited the same site then. That wasn't all though. We also spotted Whitethroat and House Martins too! Sadly at this point, two things were stopping me from being able to take decent photos of the birds. Firstly, the aforementioned good weather had not started yet. Secondly, my telephoto lens on my camera had developed a fault and I was awaiting it's replacement.


However, since these two setbacks have been banished, I have been back a few times with my new lens to take photos and have been able to add a few things to the list. I have also seen Sand Martins and Swifts. As far as insects go, I have spotted several species of flies including a few of the old favourites: hoverflies. Also a few bees. I have seen and photographed Orange-tip Butterflies and have even caught a glimpse of what I believe was a Common blue damselfly, although sadly no photos of the latter.


All in all I am really very impressed with this patch. Here's as full a list as I can manage. Educated guesses have an asterisk(*) next to them.



Birds

Whitethroat
Sand Martin
House Martin
Robin
Blackbird
Swift
Swallow
Starling
Mallard Duck
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Wood Pigeon
Feral Pigeon
Rook
Carrion Crow
Sparrow


Insects

Common Blue Damselfy*
Bumble Bee
Orange-tip Butterfly
Bluebottle Fly
Housefly
Hoverfly


And here are some photos of the aforementioned.

The underside of a female Orange-tip Butterfly.

Another view of the female Orange-tip.

A whitethroat on a fencepost.

Having a wee sing song.

Up close and personal!

A House Martin.

Swift.

I think this is a Sand Martin. Anyone care to disagree..?

This location has it's own set on my flickr...and so as always, feel free to check that out. It's found here.

Stay tuned for part two!