Great Shearwaters

Back on the last day of August I booked up a days trip out on a boat from Falmouth to look for seabirds anf maybe some Dolphins and hopefully a Whale. The weather seemed o.k on dry land but the wind had changed direction from the day before when apparently it was dead calm, so this day proved to be pretty choppy, consequently we had to hug the coast on the way out and did'nt see a lot. However out in deeper water, things looked up, seeing lots of Common Dolphin , a few Cory's Shearwater and good numbers of Great Shearwaters coming quite close to the boat. This was the species I most wanted to see and photograph, so a worthwhile trip in the end.

Chalkhill Blue

Joyce had planned a day out with her sister in Bath, so we stayed for a few nights at their home in Dursley in Gloucestershire which was quite handy for me as its not far from some good Butterfly sites, including a species I'd not seen before, the Chalkhill Blue. I headed for Rodborough commom,I had'nt realised how big the common was but surprisingly I found the area for the Blues fairly easily ( I usually get lost at new locations ! ). Thankfully the sun was mostly shining and the Butterflies were on the wing and feeding on flowers including Wild Marjoram, so I settled myself down beside that and spent some time with them, taking lots of photos.

Semi palmated Sandpiper

A Semi palmated Sandpiper was found on the Hayle estuary in Cornwall, a rare visitor to Britain from North America,so three of us decided to go take a look.I have seen two others before ( both in Cornwall) but its always nice to get another look at this small wader.

Garden visitors.

A few visitors to my pond and feeding station here in West Devon, all taken in the last few months. Love to watch the birds come and go, even if it's usually the same old ones. Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuhatch ( feeding young),Robin, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Siskin, Linnet,Chaffinch, Pheasant and Stock Dove.