A catch up...

As I said in my previous post, I have a fair bit to catch up with, so this is more of a bits and pieces post.

We took advantage of the dry weather last weekend and went for dog walks to victory wood and Seasalter beach. Saturday was cloudy but still warm and we love taking Bracken up to the Woodland Trust site, Victory wood. The skylarks were singing in their melodious tones and fluttering up skywards and after a short period of time, appearing to fall back to the ground. They are a true delight to watch and hear. Additionally the swallows skimmed the meadows filled with buttercups for tasty insects, another wonderful sight :) We also heard and caught glimpses of the bird below. Not sure if it is a common or a lesser whitethroat - I think I have said in previous posts how poor my warbler identification is! Please let me know using the comments at the bottom if you have any idea!!

Common or lesser whitethroat??

Buttercup meadow

 On Sunday we drove the short distance to Seasalter (much to Bracken's dislike as he HATES the car) and walked along the shingle beach. As we walked up the old wooden steps up to the path that leads the way to the beach, we saw lizards darting back and forth! Great to see these little creatures, usually associated with hot sunshine, when they are seen sun bathing on logs or stone.

  Bracken ditched his ball and instead found a large shell to play with. Throwing it up in the air, pouncing on it, growling at it. Very cute!

 Sunday afternoon was taken up seeing my dad. He lives by the sea too so lots of gulls were seen, a few house sparrows and some feral pigeons too. A while ago he bought some wild flower matting. Basically just a thin layer of material with various seeds trapped inside. This is just placed in some compost and hey presto ... wild flowers perfect for our pollinators, in pots, on grass, wherever! Impressed!!

Red clover

Cornflower I think

Another cornflower

A walk the other day was fabulously warm. I might even go so far as to say it was hot! Although pretty cloudy, there was hardly a breath of wind which meant I could take a few photos of the various grasses. A brilliantly bright male yellow wagtail sang from the top of  a nearby tree and several white butterflies fluttered by. Bliss!

First encounter with the yellow wagtail

Grass vetchling

Better view of the male yellow wagtail

Now for a few insects and other gardeny things from the last couple of days...

Came downstairs on Wednesday morning and mum pointed out this funny looking insect on the other side of the kitchen window. I noticed a photo of an insect which strongly resembled the one on our window. A bit later on in the morning I was loitering around the flowers looking for insects and butterflies to photograph and I noticed a very odd looking thing... no idea what it it! Please let me know if you do!

Scorpion fly I think

????

An almost perfectly circular dandilion

The same morning I watched the house sparrows go back and forth to their nest at least 3 times in one minute. They once again stole one of the housemartin nests before they had a chance to claim it when they returned. It is hard to be cross with them when they are in as much trouble as one of our favourite spring/summer migrants. I attempted to count how many hungry mouths the sparrow parents were trying to feed, and at one point I saw 4 funny little yellow beaks poking out of the carefully built nest.

Pretty mummy sparra and 2 closed chick beaks

Can make out 3 chick beaks in this one

Featherless spuggy chick stretching its neck out as far as possible in order to get a little snack!

Neighbour just the other side of the drainpipe!

Clinging onto the wall while it waits to visit its nest!

 I have now caught up so unless I see anything amazing or take any pleasing photos over the weekend, my next post will be after Glastonbury at some point!

Hope you have enjoyed looking at my blog :)