The Bouncer.

Having been invited to walk a farm of some 250 acres I was delighted to find myself in the company of that lovely little Butterfly the Gatekeeper and at times I counted dozens of them. The superb pocket guide to Butterflies by the other half of the oh! so talented Lewington brothers Richard tells me that this is a sedentary Butterfly and indeed individuals returned again and again to a favoured resting place. (by the way if you require a butterfly book then at less than a tenner this is a steal)
Saw plenty of Marbled White and Small Tortoiseshell and on the bird front A pair of Skylark with four fledged young were a sight to savour and if the sun had not been beating mercilessly down I would have carried on but after about four hours out in it I think foolhardy is the word to describe sticking it out any longer.
camboy.

Heaven-Scent.

I burnt rubber as I cycled to a mates place in Uffington today although it could have been the tyres making under pressure sounds as they did their best to withstand the weight of a rather well fed Oxon birder.
The Meadowsweet that is now flowering alongside the roads is of the most wonderful fragrance and its easy to see why in the past it was liberally strewn about the floors of cottage and hovel - a sort of poor mans aerosol .
Photographed a nest box by South Leigh that had the recent Bumble Bee colonizer Tree Bee buzzing around, the Bees have been using this nest box some time now and there appeared to be many hundreds. Remarkably this Bee was only first spotted in Wiltshire in 2001 but is now established widely in our country.
Nice few Greenfinch in the garden at the present time and at the risk of upsetting all my garden bird feeding friends I am showing a photo I took today of a Wood Pigeon I wonder why I seem to be the only one that finds the oh! so subtle greys most attractive.
camboy.

                                               Meadowsweet

                                              Greenfinch

                                             Tree Bee      Bombus Hypnorum.

                                           Wood Pigeon or Ring-Necked Dove

Not to be sneezed at.

Alan and myself hosted the Oxford Ornithological Society display at the Oxford Festival of Nature held at Botley today. We spent an afternoon in the very hot conditions made more bearable by the loan of a gazebo from the BBOWT stand next to us, this was an act of considerable kindness for which we are most grateful.
On packing up our display boards at about 5.00pm I noticed a moth on the back of one of the boards that turned out to be a Peppered Moth and although I had narrowed the identification down to four possibilities including Peppered it proved to me once again just how ambiguous the colouring, marking and identification of moths is.
We had the good fortune to meet many interesting and interested people from locals to visitors from across the globe most of them like ourselves concerned for the perilous state a world with a dangerously expanding population is heading for.
Yesterday a walk round a Bampton farm that I hadn't been on before gave me a far distant photo of a female Sparrowhawk and several Butterflies including Small Tortoiseshell and Marbled White, a rather long - eared half asleep Hare I found quite entertaining but the bites from Horse Flies were most uncomfortable and are still itchily irritating and most certainly not in the least bit entertaining.
camboy.

                                            Peppered Moth

                                              Hare

   

                                              Small Tortoiseshell       

                                            Female Sparrowhawk

                                           Marbled White

                                            Spotted Flycatcher near Waylands Smithy on the ridgeway

Thousands and Thousands

A leisurely ride out to Baulking Quarry to photograph a few of the wide selection of Dragons to be found there in the heat of the afternoon sun was hard work even just pedalling slowly. After hiding the bike in a nearby ditch and walking across the freshly cut and turned meadow I arrived in the Quarry surrounds 'proper' with the delicious heady scent of the making hay still in my nostrils. One solitary Dragon was seen but literally thousands and thousands of Damselflies mainly of the Common Blue variety were in evidence.
Just three Lesser Black - Backed  Gulls were on the water although because of the distance and two of them not yet adults I am prepared to be corrected. Other birds seen were Linnet, Canada's and Tufted duck along with the usual Coot, Great Crested Grebe and Mallard.
Meadow Brown, Marbled White and Large Skipper were Butterflies noted whilst Five Spot Burnet was the only Moth represented.
As the time to leave approached suddenly Dragons were everywhere possibly because they were shielded from the strengthening wind by the hedge, unfortunately I had to leave as other duties beckoned.
camboy.

                                              Common Blue Damselflies

                                                    Marbled White

                                                          Large Skipper

                                                  Lesser Black-Backed Gulls ?

                     Narrow Bordered Five - Spot Burnet

                                                     Meadow Brown

                                              A Motley lot

                                              Thousands and Thousands

Marbleous

Managed to get the two wheeled demon machine mounted and headed towards  Shellingford Quarry, and taking a short cut through the fields soon found several Speckled Wood Butties offering photo opportunities. Arriving at the Quarry I called in on James and he grasped the chance to leave a dull task and join me for half an hour or so looking for Dragons of which there were many but photography proved difficult due to the very bright sunlight and the non-stop whizzing around of the Emperors in particular. James spotted a Buttie that I managed to get a shot of although it was not an opened wing shot the so called less interesting side of a Marbled White is actually very attractive.
James returned to his tasks and I continued to be frustrated by the poor photography conditions and the only easy shots were of Four-Spotted Chasers.
I have recently purchased a SX50 Canon camera for my general photographic escapades and I totally disregarded Lewbelus advice to carefully read the instructions first and consequently struggled with a piece of easy to use equipment but i'm confident that the much reduced size will be appreciated as i've long stopped dragging my x 400 canon on my outings and with the video facility on the SX50 look forward to becoming familiar with the new toy.
camboy.

 Marbled White

 Speckled Wood

Four-Spotted Chaser

Common or Garden

A walk round the garden in the heat of the day gave a sight of a few common garden insects.
camboy.

 Spotted Cranefly

 Yellow Shell

 Hoverfly  scaeva pyrastri

Garden Spider.

Currying Favour.

I along with Alan Larkman are mounting a display at Bampton Primary School today  so! I hope a few pics from yesterday will find favour with you as time is at a premium.
Last nights 'birders curry' at the Yetti was a most enjoyable experience giving me the chance to meet up with some of my favourite people - THANKS Badge for arranging things.
camboy.