An early start on Sunday saw myself, Martin Bevan and Phil head over to Nottinghamshire to catch up with the breeding Bee-eaters, and hopefully getting better views than our previous visit to the breeding bird on the Isle of Wight. It was quite overcast on arrival but it wasn't long before we heard our first Bee-eater call, alarming as a Sparrowhawk flew over. Not long after the first bird was seen hawking over one of the gravel pits before perching on a distant tree. It wasn't long before it was joined by a second bird. The light remained poor and the birds distant to allow for any decent photographs. After over a hour, with up to 4 Bee-eaters showing we headed back to the car, but not before we had great looks of two perched quite close to the main road on the overhead wires, allowing great photo opportunities.
Such a great looking bird, but surely wrongly named It's an A*-eater!
We then followed that with a trip to Fermyn Woods to try for Purple Emperor. No luck with the Emperor but we recorded 40+ Purple Hairsteaks, a single White Admiral, many Silver-washed Fritilary(to his shame, these were Mr Bevans first fritilaries of the year)
We then followed that with a trip to Fermyn Woods to try for Purple Emperor. No luck with the Emperor but we recorded 40+ Purple Hairsteaks, a single White Admiral, many Silver-washed Fritilary(to his shame, these were Mr Bevans first fritilaries of the year)
Nice to read it Martin and yes the first time it,s took me this long to see a frit and i have not seen hawk moth yet and one of these years and a great day and good company .
ReplyDeleteAnother great day out. Even Mr Bevan took his own rubbish home, I think !!
ReplyDeleteMaybe not Mr Hill and did you check your bag pmsl and we had a second white Admiral.
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