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| If you are wondering - mine is just a Point & Shoot Bridge Camera Nothing like these! |
6th May
2016
I called in Ballachurry Reserve again on
Friday on my way back from Port Erin, mainly to check if the Grasshopper
Warbler was still there. This time it was in a Hawthorn bush ( it was in the
Hemlock Water Dropwort last time), It's certainly causing a stir among the Island's birders and bird photographers! It was good to meet a number of other first time visitors to the Reserve too. Between chatting to all these people I noted the following:
Birds:
SC209695 3 x
Goldfinches; 2 x Bluetits
SC208694
Blackcap
SC209694
Grasshopper Warbler
SC208695 Sedge Warbler
SC208694 White
throat ( bad photo as some distance away but record shot)
There was also a Willow
Warbler building a nest. It was fetching white feathers from Old School House
garden. They looked like white peahen breast feathers! ( Grid ref withheld)
Spiders:
SC210694 ( entrance) Pisaura
mirablis spider
SC208695 Spider
carrying egg sack
SC209695 3
different spiders including crab spider, all very interested in a Bumble Bee on
dead grass.
Butterflies:
SC210694S ( Entrance)
Small Tortoiseshell
SC209694 (Ginny's
bench) Small Tortoiseshell
SC209694 ( Gorse
Boundary ) Small Tortoiseshell
SC209694 ( Gorse
Boundary) Male Orange Tip chasing off an unidentified White butterfly much
larger than itself
SC208694 Orange
Tip
Shieldbugs:
SC208694 17x
Gorse Shieldbugs + two lots of eggs ( first I've seen this year)
Water Creatures:
SC209695 15
Water Crickets + some Water Shrimps
Other:
SC209694 Unidentified
Beetle
SC209693 Chrysomelid
beetle
SC209695 Crane
Fly
SC209695 Bumble
Bee
SC208695 flies
on Hogweed, including Hoverflies. Eristalis pertinax + 3 other species.
SC209695 Eristalis
Pertinax Hoverfly
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| Grasshoppper Warbler |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Distant view of Whitethroat |
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| Whitethroat - wish I had one of those long lenses! |
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| Trying to identify this beetle |
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| Some sort of Chrysomelid beetle |
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| Gorse Shieldbug |
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| Sunbathing flies on Hogweed |
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| Eristalis Pertinax Hoverfly on Hogweed |
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| Two more unidentified Hoverflies |
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| Another species of Hoverfly |
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| Bumble bee with 3 species of spider |
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| Crab spider |
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| Blurry picture of another spider near bee |
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| This spider was particularly interested in the bee |
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| This spider is carrying egg sack |
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| These big ginger spiders ( Pizaura mirabilis) run very fast |
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| Crane fly |
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| a sunny view of the Reserve as I was leaving |
