Pop Goes The Weasel

Two of them in fact - seen running across the road near Shenstone yesterday. These are only the third and fourth weasels I have seen, and were the highlight of a morning spent with my friend Boyley, who has expressed an interest in becoming a birder.

I decided that the best way to spark his interest was to go to a few sites where we might see one or two elusive species. First up was Hopwood, where we had a look for a little owl. Sadly, the owl didn't put in an appearance so we headed to Upton Warren.

Here we had juvenile water rail, little ringed plover, dunlin, green sandpiper, common sandpiper and snipe - all decent spots for someone just starting their life list.

Just before we left, we were treated to good views of a peregrine that made a couple of passes over the Flashes.

Aside from the two weasels, Shenstone offered little of birding interest. Still, Boyley is on his way now with a burgeoning list comprising just under 40 species.

I'll leave you with a couple of shots taken in the garden on Saturday. The first is a rather tatty and forlorn-looking peacock. The second is the culprit that I rescued it from. Naughty boy!





Barney aka Faterpillar and the peacock

Darts Of Pleasure

A couple of new pics taken at work on Wednesday.



Common green grasshopper



Common darter

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

A trip out to Earlswood lakes this morning brought a couple of additions to the patch list - namely common sandpiper and lesser whitethroat. Sadly, no kingfisher, hence today's title.

A willow warbler in Tanners Green Lane, less than a mile from home, was also notable.

I have now surpassed 100 miles on the patch this year and accumulated 78 ticks thus far.

No pictures today as the camera stayed at home, but here a few shots taken at work on Friday.







Green-veined white



Speckled wood









Comma

Finally, it appears that silly season is now with us again, following sightings of Montagu's harrier and spotted crake at Upton Warren this weekend.

Methinks there could be a bit of twitching to be done over the next month or two!

The Boy Does Nothing

That's probably what everyone at work thinks when I slope off for an hour at lunchtime. However, if it's a choice between me coming back smelling of booze, or the great outdoors, surely the latter is preferable?

Lots of good stuff around on site this week. New faces include a pair of grey wagtails and this small copper.











Shots of the small copper

A couple of snaps of some familiar faces too - a southern hawker and a common darter, both seen at rest in the wildflower meadow today.





Southern hawker and common darter

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

It's been a week of mixed fortunes here at Eye To The Telescope. I'd been meaning to e-mail a few of my butterfly photos to Central Tonight, in the hope that they might be used at the top of their weather forecast.

Having bagged a decent shot of a painted lady on Thursday, I duly sent it off to the delightful Lucy Kite, who I featured in this blog some months back. On Friday evening I followed this up with shots of a comma and a small tortoiseshell taken a couple of weeks ago.



Lucy with Midlands Today berserker Ashley Blake

I didn't manage to catch the news on Friday evening, but assumed it would probably be a few days until there was any chance of one of my pictures being used. Imagine my surprise when I received word that the painted lady picture had appeared on Friday night.

I'm obviously delighted that it was used, but a bit gutted that I missed it. I'm hopeful that one of the other pictures is used over the next few weeks. I have taken steps to record the programme each night just in case.

Okay, that's Lucy dealt with - now for those diamonds ...

First up is this caterpillar, which I discovered in the garden on Saturday. It was a good couple of inches long and is presumably destined to become a moth of some sort. If anyone has any ideas as to what it might be, I would be keen to know.





A couple of shots of the mystery caterpillar

Next up is the wood sandpiper that turned up at Upton Warren on Saturday. These are great birds in my opinion and one that I will never tire of seeing. As Mrs Reg and I were heading to Webb's garden centre today, I grabbed the opportunity to go and feast my eyes on this elegant wader.





Wood sandpiper

Also present at Upton Warren were good numbers of common and green sandpipers, plus five snipe and a dunlin. I hope to be back at Upton Warren next weekend, where I will hopefully have a bit more time to look around the reserve properly. Today was unfortunately something of a smash and grab job.

Time for one last pic of the day - a large white butterfly, which I snapped at Webb's.



Large white

Together We Are Beautiful

Hordes of butterflies at work this week .. one of the buddleias on site has been covered with peacocks, painted ladies and small tortoiseshells.













Various shots of the butterflies

Also on site, more southern and brown hawkers, and this common darter, which I managed to snap.



Common darter

I've Been Out Walking

With much patience and some luck, I finally managed to get some shots of the southern hawkers at work this week ...







Southern hawkers

On Friday, I made my first July foray onto the patch. Birds seen included common buzzard, sparrowhawk and yellowhammer, whilst butterflies on the wing consisted of large white, meadow brown, speckled wood, green-veined white and gatekeeper.

One Eddie Stobart truck was spotted from the motorway bridge - Ysabel Sophie, taking the year's tally to 153.

Here are a few random pics from the patch ...



Deadly nightshade



Wasp thing



Harlequin ladybird



Blackberries