The Bird Fair in August

I will be running a workshop at the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland in August. This will complement the Peregrine Productions stand at the fair.
The workshop is to help novices to start identifying insects. It will be on the Saturday (16th August 2008) and further details are on the Bird Fair website http://www.birdfair.org.uk/

Rumblings of Spring

It has been a while since the last post, so I thought I should put something down!

Spring finally seems to be trying to burst through. This means that Bumble Bees and Butterflies are finally around. We visited my parents in Kent and saw a few Butterflies including a Clouded Yellow at Samphire Hoe, Folkestone. This seemed early to me. The picture of the Clouded Yellow shown here was taken on holiday in Corsica some years ago.

Over the last few days, Beeflies and Anthophora Flower Bees have also been around.

Insects at a Theme Park

On Sunday 30th March, we Tom decided to go to Bewilderwood in the Norfolk Broads for his belated Birthday treat.
This is an 'eco-friendly' theme park in a wood and bog complex. It is based around a theme of some imaginary creatures called 'Boggles' and 'Twiggles' and their adventures. The website is at http://www.bewilderwood.co.uk/. It is not too bad as theme Parks go. The food is pretty good - makes a change!
The weather was much better than it had been the previous week. In fact it was so nice that numerous insects were about. There were at least 5 species of Ladybird - 7-spot, 10-spot, Larch, Pine and Eyed. Also several Brimstone and Peacock butterflies.
Lots of stoneflies were flying. I decided they were Nemoura cinerea. Unfortunately, we did not take a camera.

Easter snow

It's been a while since I posted anything on the blog.

Work has been busy, so not so much time for the important things like wildlife and painting. A snowy Easter caught our cows out - they were not too happy! The children enjoyed it though.

Some Bumble Bees have been out and about prior to this week, so they will hopefully be avoiding the cold snap.

Some insects for a change

The children are rennovating their playhouse in the vegetable patch. At the weekend they found conglomerations of Harlequin Ladybirds Harmonia axyridis. They were obviously overwintering. Further information on this species and its invasion of Britain can be found at http://www.harlequin-survey.org/.
Also in the playhouse were some overwintering Lacewings.

North Norfolk and a Twitch(!)

We went as a family to North Norfolk for a long weekend. The weather was glorious and birdwatching was good. We visited Titchwell RSPB http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/t/titchwellmarsh/index.asp, Snettisham RSPB http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/snettisham/index.asp, Cley NWT http://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/nature%20reserves/map-links/cley.htm and Pensthorpe http://www.pensthorpe.com/. We even fitted in time for our second ever twitch - the long staying White-crowned Sparrow at Cley.

As this is supposed to be an insect blog, I will mention the insects we saw. Some 7 spot Ladybirds were around at Snettisham and most sites had various Bumble Bees (Mainly Bombus terrestris, with a few Bombus lucorum).




This cheeky little Robin was in the car park at Titchwell RSPB. It was very tame and came right up to us.

Numerous other birds were around at all the reserves we visited. Lots of Brent Geese, as well as Pink-footed at Snettisham.

Stonechats were much in evidence and we got good views. On the beach at Cley, a birdwatcher kindly pointed out a flock of Snow Buntings to us, much to the children's delight.

Eleanor was practising her filming again and seems to be improving all the time. She got good footage of Redshank, ducks and Egrets, as well as some Marsh Harriers.

We rounded of the trip with a visit to Pensthorpe to see the Cranes and Corncrakes.

Species Champions - Birdlife Preventing Extinctions Programme

As there is not a lot of insect life around at the moment (a few ladybirds today), I thought I would mention the Blue Throated Macaw.

At last year's British Birdwatching Fair in Rutland, money was being raised for Birdlife International's Preventing Extinctions Programme. A frightening number of bird species are threatened with extinction.

Each stand at the Fair was asked to promote a species. Peregrine Production's species was the Blue-throated Macaw, Ara glaucogularis.

More information on this endangered parrot from South America can be found at http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=1548&m=0