More Kingston Lisle Spotted Flycatcher photos.

Streaked not Spotted but Spotted.

The garden of my niece Linda and her husband John who live in Kingston Lisle gave me great pleasure today with the apparent use of their garden by two pairs of Spotted Flycatchers. This garden is the usual breeding site for a pair of Spotties although they were absent last year, so you can imagine the joy to see it has once again been selected.
The Feather.

Foxy lady in the long grass.

Grabbed my new hybrid rubber tired steed and rode to a local Stanford In The Vale farm , walked far and wide but the birdlife was rather unexciting with only breeding Lapwings to generate any interest. Walking through a meadow of long mowing grass I surprised a Fox Cub or more correctly I should say it surprised me. Also came across a Roebuck with a head on it that will quite possibly be the death of it as the trophy value to a stalker of its fine antlers is high.
The Feather.

His Grace and Others.

The sun shone the Butterflies flew and the world looked good today (Thursday).

Oxon Duke of Burgundy

Small HeathGreen Carpet MothThe Beautiful Duke againDingy Skipper

Common Blue

Allaflutter.

The Denchworth to Hanney bridle  track that I walked Monday gave me some thirty Skylarks , three Yellow Wagtails, A Yellowhammer and a Whitethroat all these birds were photographed others were noted but nothing out of the ordinary. Fortunately the erect crest of the Skylark shows well.
The Feather.

On a High in the Highlands.

I have recently spent a week in the Scottish Highlands staying at Kindrogan one of the centres operated by The Field Studies Council an organisation devoted to bringing people and our natural environment closer together. Like the course I attended last year at Flatford Mill Suffolk when the course leader was Richard Lewington the Kindrogan course leader was Russell Nisbet both these characters are very knowledgable and Russell displayed an amazing gift of mimicking bird song and displaying oodles of patience to the many questions asked of him by the eleven strong band of strangers brought together by a common thirst for improving our knowledge of the great outdoors in general and the avian and floral species in particular that are to be found in the Highlands. The food and facilities at the Kindrogan centre were impressive to say the least but the real icing on the cake was the easy going attitude of Russell with nightly informative discussions on our subject.
The special birds seen were Crested Tit, Ptarmigan, Osprey, Redpoll, Red Grouse, Black Grouse , Whinchat, Woodcock, Dipper, Slavonian Grebe and Ring Ouzel. In fact we ticked some 107 species in our time there and the week went so quickly due to the action filled days including climbing most the way up a mountain where I had the good fortune to photograph that iconic Scottish bird the Ptarmigan.

 Ptarmigan

 Siskin with young

Black Grouse at Lek

 Crossbill

 Red Grouse

 Mountain Hare

 Osprey

 Larch in flower

 Fallow Deer

 Russell on left

 Goldeneye

 Golden Plover

 Willow Warbler