A Tick !!!

27 August 2011

An early (ish) morning walk through the wood to West Acre scrape and it was really quite dark, then a shaft of sunlight lit up this Fly Agaric by the side of the track. There followed a frantic changing of lenses and a drop to the ground (not because I thought it would fly off, but worried the sunlight would go!) , very wet ground at that, and I have to say it looked  rather fantastic in the surrounding gloom.

To the hide and on opening the flap, yup there was a Green Sandpiper, so there follows the usual compilation..........

 continuing on from the reflections theme... and below showing the beautifully intricate underwing     barring..

 and pic below, the characteristic give away flight id features of dark underwing and white rump - though I guess it could be confused with a House Martin ? - must look that up.

Everything flew off and I expected a large bird of prey to float over, but nothing and as usual the Kingfisher stick was empty

But wait, a piercing cry and there he was, in a bush (too far away!!) , and that's where he stayed no matter how many stickleback noises I imitated from the hide. Great to watch though as he fished for some twenty minutes, then a flash of colour and gone. One day on that stick....one day..

I left and drove home but en route added a life tick, a weird but clearly very efficient melon/squash organising machine - new for me.