Marbellous Whites

I spent some time last week at the Kiplincotes Chalk quarry YWT nature reserve with the objective to capture some nice photos of Marbled White butterflies.

Armed with my camera with flash and 150mm macro lens on tripod I parked up in the small layby, big enough for 2-3 cars and walked into the reserve.

Straight away I saw a worn Common Blue and dozens of Large Skippers, then one single Marbled White, I followed it but it did not land and flew off over the Hawthorns.

I headed towards the sunny side of the quarry on the left slopes and saw quite a few Marbled whites.

I climbed the steps to the meadow field on the upper level and the place was alive with Marbled Whites, more Large Skippers than I have ever seen before, dozens of Burnet Moths and odd Red Admiral passing through.

The wind was a bit strong and the sun didn't come out much. The butterflies tended to stay on the wing most of the time with only very brief moments perching, mostly in the long grass.

I managed to photograph a quite confiding one as it fed on Field Scabious.

The Soldier Beetles were busy too.

Blacktoft Sands delights

I went to The RSPB reserve at Blacktoft Sands in Lincolnshire yesterday and had a good afternoons birding although it was a little quiet with hardly any warblers. Of course I had missed the Grasshopper Warbler that was outside Singleton Hide in the morning.

I started off at Ousefleet with the walk there yielding little except a possible Merlin over the end field. No sign of the hoped for Yellow Wagtails.

Out of the hide we quickly got onto 3 Spotshanks and various more common wildfowl. No Avocets at this hide. As I scanned around, watching 2 Marsh Harriers in the distance I saw a large bird rise up out of the reeds and start to get mobbed by Black Headed Gulls. I called out for the Bittern but it had dropped down before anyone else saw it.

On to Marshland and we saw plenty of Avocets here and the Bittern flew past from where it had landed earlier near Ousefleet. A pink tinged Black Headed Gull was swimming around with the regular BHG's.

A flock of Black Tailed Godwit flew past and turned before landing on one of the islands, giving really good views.

We saw the Bittern again at Xerox with more views of the BTG's as they flew east.

As we walked between hides we could hear Sedge Warblers singing and these gave brief views from the reeds. It was noted that the reeds had been badly affected by the recent flooding due to high tides with a lot of them laid flat close to the paths.

No sign of the Whitethroat that had shown well earlier near Townend hide either.

We had good views of both male and female Marsh Harriers from all of the hides but the best views were from Singleton at the far right of the reserve.

If only this reserve had a Cafe it would be ace to visit more often as most of my chosen birding spots tend to be good spots for a cuppa tea, bit of cake or a bacon sarnie.