#birdwathing

Red Winged Black Bird

27/07/19-My first ever Lulworth Skippers make 2019 my highest ever butterfly year list and more at Durlston 

We made our second visit of the year to this special place, mostly to see butterflies and it was great to see the place alive with mostly summer species compared to the spring ones we normally see on our annual April visit here. The one we were after seeing were Lulworth Skippers which we were told were here. After not too long walking through grassland just along from the visitor centre we spotted one! 

This was my first ever, but we saw many this afternoon probably well into double figures. I took the first, third and fourth pictures in this photoset of them, with the second picture the sun coming out from behind clouds. We got to see what a stunning and precious species they are. Both the female and male are very beautiful and I loved seeing them whizz about in front of us. I found them pretty distinctive to the Small Skippers too with the much smaller size and markings. I felt I was seeing one of the rarest butterflies in the country but this area is so good for them which I am proud of. 

It was my 46th butterfly species I had ever seen, and this year my all important 43rd species of my year making 2019 my highest ever butterfly year list ahead of last year’s 42 now. I indicated when a Common Grayling year tick levelled my record on Sunday at Whitefield Moor in the New Forest how much this meant to me. Interestingly a year ago today seeing the grayling at that same place made 2018 my highest ever butterfly year list. It felt written in the stars for me to break my record today then and to do it with a new species which I had done when my (now surpassed by 2018) bird year list record was broken in 2017 felt so sweet.

Every single butterfly; plain and colourful, rare and common played a big role in this achievement for me. The Purple Emperor and White-letter Hairstreak being seen again the newbies for me last year was crucial. But so important too was seeing two more newbies this year this and Northern Brown Argus and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary which I didn’t see last year as it gave it the edge over and differences to 2018 to beat it which I knew would always be a big task for me. 

Later on I took the fifth picture in this photoset of a lovely burnet moth. As we walked round the country park also it was lovely to see two Green Woodpeckers and a Roe Deer bounding through the wonderful blooming meadow habitat which is was fantastic to explore here deeper today. I took the sixth picture in this photoset of this area, the seventh of a Linnet and eighth of a view out to sea. Two Peregrines flying over and a Gannet out to sea were highlights too. 

As I said on Monday I was only doing additional big butterfly counts to ones I have already done so far in the three weeks the survey is one if I could see one of the target species I had not yet counted in one. One I knew I had the chance to see today was Wall Browns by the coastal wall and dry areas as I had the last three years in the April visits. It turns out Wall Brown isn’t a target species in the count or at least not this year so I made a bit of a mistake there but I need no excuse really to do a sixth count. This was not near to where I’d seen the Lulworth Skippers so I couldn’t include both in another 15 minutes of counting but after seeing the 3 Wall Browns I did do another count. In it I saw 3 Large Whites, 7 Marbled Whites a big star of the afternoon and 10 Gatekeeper. 

This was a great cross section of what was a wonderful afternoon outside where I saw so many butterflies of different kinds. It continues a great run of quality summer weekends for me and I had so much fun creating a great bit of personal year list history. I also took the last two pictures in this photoset a view and one of our dogs Missy.

Northern Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium californicum), Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The northern pygmy owl measures just 7 inches tall, but is a fierce hunter that specializes in eating small birds and mammals.

Photograph by David Mitchell/Flickr CC

2月8日（木）open 12-18

よいお天気の一日でしたね。 悲しいことも、悔しさも、嬉しさも、楽しいことも。 101年生きる、ということを考えた一日でした。 友だちが最後に来てくれて、色々話せて明るい方を向いていこうね、と思えた夕方。 ありがとう。

1月20日（土）open 12-19

予報通りの雪です。 今のところまだ積もってはいませんが、お出かけの際はお足元お気をつけて。

買い出しついでに、東の山の辺りまで行くと、冬らしい鳥に会えるこの頃。 賑やかに鳴くカケスやシメが高いところから見おろしていました。 街や人々（首から双眼鏡をさげている私とか）の様子をうかがっているのかな。 28日まで通販で受付している、nakabanさんの作品は残り１点となりました。 実はこの絵の中にも、街を見おろしている鳥の影。 「旧市街」というタイトルのこの作品は、やっぱりnakabanさんらしい異国の空気が漂う街並みです。 よい風景なので、お会計のカウンターの壁に飾ってあります。 店頭でご覧になってみてくださいね。 お気に召していただけたら、もちろん購入いただけます。

松本の街は、古い建物がどんどんと無くなっています。 寂しいな、と思う反面、各地の大きな地震の被害を思うと、決して他人事ではないなと、思う。 本・中川の建物も築年数不明で、緊急車両も入りづらい狭い路地にあるのです。