karen's country calendar

It dawned bright and sunny but with quite a stiff cool breeze which didn't auger well for butterfly spotting but we decided to make the trip to Pitsford Water anyway.  We obtained a pass from the Fishing Lodge for entry to the nature reserve and to my surprise, within the first 50 yards we spotted a female Common blue butterfly, Small Cooper and small Heath, none of which I had seen this year.  Our walk round part of the reservoir did not reveal any more apart from many speckled wood butterflies and not the Clouded Yellow which had been seen in the area recently.  However I was pleased to add a Little Grebe to my bird list bring my total to 109 this year, my highest ever number recorded.  We then called in at Twyford Hills and Dales nature reserve in search of a rare Grizzled Skipper butterfly but although we didn't manage to see that, I did see a brown Argus and plenty of male Common Blues and Small Heaths.   Strangely enough, we met a couple with camera and binoculars but

On checking the website for Frampton Marsh we noticed there had been sightings of a rare stilt sandpiper and although we didn't expect to see it we thought there would be a large number of twitchers there and so it proved to be. The purpose of my visit was to see some waders which were rather lacking on this years bird list and we were soon rewarded by sightings of black tailed godwit, ruff, and common sandpipers.  Walking round the reserve we came across a group of people armed with long lenses but sadly the rare bird had not been seen. We decided to walk round further and I was soon able to add dunlin, little ringed plover, snipe and avocet to my list together with a single Whooper swan.  By this time the group of twitchers had moved to another scrape and as we approached we heard an excited whistle. There it was right in front of us busy feeding. Its plumage was very marked with barring on its flanks and long legs,  hence its name although most of its legs were hidden in the

After a 4am start and 4 1/2 hour drive, we arrived at Seahouses ready to board our boat for the day trip to the Farne Islands off the  Northumbrian coast. The weather was cool and cloudy and we were glad of our layers of clothing and fleecy hats. The trip across lasted an hour as we were given a tour round the various islands and alongside the rocky cliffs and ledges which gave an indication of the sheer volume of nesting shags, razorbills, guillemots, puffins, kittiwakes and species of gull. We were also taken to where seals were resting on the rocky spits and our boat was soon surrounded by interested seals with their heads just visible above the water.  our boat Glad Tidings seals  cliffs  cliffs seals in water Our first landing was on Outer Farne, a rocky island where we  could wander almost where were wanted, being careful not to tread on any nests of Eider ducks or gulls which were marked with small flags.   It was amazing being so close to the birds.