Here's the bird they've all been raving about though.
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| Juvenile Masked Shrike, Spurn (3rd UK record) |
A few weeks ago I had 4 Whinchats, a Redstart and 2 Spotted Flycatchers on my patch at Strensall Common, just up the road from me and I was amazed. Not rarities of course but to me far more memorable!
Autumn is the time for wind blown rarities and they can turn up anywhere. This Pectoral Sandpiper turned up on Hatfield Moor recently and this is my mate Mark's patch so it don't count as a twitch!
Unlike most of the rarities that turn up on the east coast in Autumn, Pectoral Sandpipers hail not from Europe but from North America and although well off track from their destinations in South America a few turn up every year across the UK but normally on the west coast so this is a good bird for Hatfield.
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| Northern Wheatear |
There were a couple of Little Stints there too as well as a Northern Wheatear and a Whinchat but the light was so poor the pics are not great.
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| Little Stint |
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| Common Darter (female/ imm male) |
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| Common Darter (female/ imm male) |
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| Common Hawker? |
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| Migrant Hawker.. in Mark's garden! |
...........and here's a sight for sore eyes and a tribute to one man's determination to get on his bike and not let a mere broken leg get in the way of getting out and about!
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| Mark back on his bike 2 months after his leg was broken in 100 places after a motorbike accident.. good on yer mate! |
High summer seems like a life time away now but it really was another good one for butterflies .... here's a Small Skipper on Hatfield, closely followed by Gatekeeper ....
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| Small Skipper |
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| Gatekeeper |
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| Peacock Butterfly on Thistle heads. |
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| Wall Butterfly |
Not on Hatfield but in my very own garden and a first for my little since departed plot ... a Wall butterfly on the grass!
Here's my Hatfield parting shot, a Willow Warbler perched high up on the perimeter fence of Lindholme prison ... it was singing free as a bird!
