Otters and caterpillars and pratincoles, Oh My!

Well it's be fun times for wildlife again lately!

Last Saturday Matthew dragged me to Duxford Flying Legends Airshow with him to help on his RSPB stand, it was a verrrrrryyyy long day and mostly dominated by planes, but they weren't the only things flying that day, I managed to see a buzzard circling above in the thermals (it was a very hot day!), there were loads of rooks and wagtails around and as I clicked a photo of a spitfire, a butterfly flew past, resulting in what I think is a pretty cool photo! It also appeared to be flying ant day, they were all over the place!

 

On Sunday, my dad and I went to Strumpshaw Fen. When we first arrived they had just had a massive downpour, but the sun had come out again so it was incredibly humid, there were lots of butterflies and dragonflies around, including red admirals, gatekeepers and black tailed skimmer dragonflies, also lots of grasshoppers! Despite the heat it really looked like it was about to rain so we continued straight to Tower Hide, there were several marsh harriers around, including 2 juvenile ones, and we sw at least 3 food passes that day. Not long after that the heavens opened and it absolutely chucked it down, most of the birds didn't seem too bothered about it though, and we saw a kingfisher zipping past (trying to find shelter perhaps?).

 

Once the rain had stopped we made a quick dash back to reception, deciding it would be too boggy to the full loop and unlikely to find swallowtails in that weather anyway. Along the way we saw a flock of about 20 long tailed tits and heard a grasshopper warbler in the meadow. I'm very glad we did go back that way because if we had carried on we would have missed the otter!! He was pottering around quite happily at Reception Hide, diving for fish and having a great time in the light rain that had started again! I just love seeing otters, as I probably said before, I spent a long time trying to see one and even though I've seen several now I never take it for granted, it was a very happy day :)

Things were pretty quiet on the wildlife front at the start of the week, but on Friday evening we took an evening trip to Titchwell Marsh, this is only the second time I have been and it was really lovely. We saw plenty of wildlife on the journey there as well, including hares and sparrowhawks!
Titchwell has so many wading birds I don't even know where to begin, and to be perfectly honest I am rubbish at identifying them, but there were loads of avocets and curlews, I just love curlews, I don't know why, maybe it's because I can identify them pretty easily! Matthew was also pleased to see spotted redshanks and as always I enjoyed the lovely sounds of the lapwings!
This was also my first sighting of cinnabar moth caterpillars, they are so pretty! We also had a lot of fun watching a little bat that was flitting around and the sunset was beautiful!

 

 

On Saturday evening we took a trip to Minsmere (via a different route to avoid traffic from Latitude Festival), not to be outdone by Titchwell we saw a cuckoo and a juvenile green woodpecker almost as soon as we arrived, but Matthew was after something different, we headed to East Hide to look for a collared pratincole which is very rare to see in Suffolk, there were plenty of other waders and gulls around too (again, I'm not so hot on the names of all of these, the one pictured is a greenshank I believe!) but we could not see this pratincole anywhere! Then, all of a sudden, another guy in the hide alerted us to its presence with a LOT of swearing! And there is was just sat there on the bank, quite far away so my photo is rubbish but we saw it and Matthew and this sweary guy were a very happy bunnies!

 

 

I spent a bit of time in my garden too this weekend and was pleased to see a speckled wood butterfly using our butterfly feeder!

 

Today (Sunday) I got the Bittern Line from Norwich to Sheringham to visit my good friend Heather, never underestimate the potential for wildlife watching from the train! Today I saw oyster catchers and a buzzard, on other occasions I have seen foxes, egrets, woodpeckers and red kites from the comfort of a train seat!

 

We didn't really do any wildlife watching but she is out in the country has a lovely big garden which was home to a wren and lots of butterflies such as commas, large whites and meadow browns, she also has tons of cinnabar moth caterpillars too! On other trips there we have seen barn owls, tawny owls and hares :)

I hope you have enjoyed my wildlife update!! I am working on a blog about my gap year in Kenya way back in 2005 so stay tuned for that!

 

xx