Peak District, 21 - 23 August 2014

A walking trip to our beloved Peak District that turned into a limping trip. But that's a whole new story!

Not a great deal of nature worthiness compared to our spring trips but the Bleaklow Head area revealed 4 Ravens, at least 12 Red Grouse and Mountain Hare while the River Bamford held a confiding Dipper, 4 Grey Wagtails and an overhead Hobby mobbed by the local hirundines. Around the grounds of Eyam Youth Hostel were Tawny Owl, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Common Buzzard plus plenty of Red Grouse, Stonechats and Linnets on Eyam Moor but there was little else to trouble the scorers!

These 2 pics were taken with Belinda's bridge camera as I'd not taken my big lens.

Dipper, River Bamford

 Red Grouse, Bleaklow Head

 

Franklins Gull dip, Cley, 17 August 2014

Franklins Gull is fast becoming my Norfolk bogey bird - having missed a bird at Breydon by minutes some years ago I proceeded to miss this years Breydon bird by 30 minutes about 2 weeks ago and again last night at Cley it failed to show despite having come in on 3 of the previous 4 nights.
3 hours of scanning and re-scanning gulls on Pats Pool and Simmonds until it got too dark to see resulted in 1 juv Mediterranean Gull, 1 Yellow-legged Gull, 4 Spoonbills, 1 Little Egret and eventually a Little Stint picked out in the failing light but nothing was much consolation for missing the star attraction. Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Ruff, Dunlin, Avocet and Black-tailed Godwit brought up the rest of the waders.
The Painted Lady below was photographed at Happisburgh the previous day.

Spotted Flycatchers breed locally - again!

Having had just one brief view of an adult Spotted Flycatcher in the garden back in May I've not seen anything of them all summer. This morning I opened the bedroom curtains to see this fledged juvenile preening just a few feet from the window! They've bred somewhere nearby which makes 3 consecutive years. We've only been here 3 years so I've no idea if the breeding run goes back further. A single lingering Swift was also still hanging on in. In the afternoon a Hobby was over Goodies Farm Shop harrassed by the local Swallows.