On the morning of Saturday 29 July the sun was shining in our garden and again we had a few butterflies on the Buddleia. It is not called the butterfly bush for nothing.
For those that don’t like spiders be warned that there is a photo of a web later on – no spider though.
As usual you can click on any of the images and see larger versions on Flickr. There are also a few other photos on Flickr taken around the same time.
This Small Tortoiseshell was sipping the nectar on the Buddleia.
On Friday 4 I had a day off work and went up past Moorfield Equestrian Centre where I spotted this Roe Deer. It was with a similar sized buck.
A little further North I spotted a Small Copper, and they are small. Compare its size to that of the berries next to it.
Another view of a Small Copper.
Just near the Equestrian Centre are some thistles and on my way back I kept quiet and was rewarded by Goldfinch coming and eating some of the seeds. There ability to nibble along until they get to the seed is amazing when you think that all they have is a hard beak and a tongue.
This is a juvenile Goldfinch in the Thistles. I am still hoping to see flocks of Goldfinch on the many thistles down by Tong Park Dam.
Walking up the narrow path towards the bottom gate of the rugby club I noticed quite a few spider webs at the entrance to holes in the embankment by the side of the path. I believe these are the work of Labyrinth Spiders, a rather dull grey-brown spider that usually goes unnoticed apart from these webs.
5 August
Early on 5 August I went along much the same route as Saturday but a lot earlier. The photo above was taken at just gone 7:00 AM. In my memory the near fairways were much more silvery with the dew. The length of the shadows show it to still be morning.
And this is what I was hoping to see. Curlew and Hare, with a Swallow doing a low level fly by.
I don’t know if the shape of a Curlew’s bill varies during the year but this one has a bill that is thick at the head end. At a guess I would say that it is a juvenile. This Curlew is just stretching out its left leg and wing.
You can see that is reasonably early in the morning – the grass still has sparkling drop of dew all over it.
But this is what I was hoping to see – Hare. The early low Sun is giving it a more golden colour than ones I have seen in the past.
They tuck their rear legs well under as they lope around.
This shows one reason why you might not see many Hares around. They tend to hunker down and the grass wouldn’t have to grow much more for them to be out of sight. The two lighter areas to the right of the Hare are two swallows flying along the fields just above the grass.
This Hare is quietly eating the grass and probably keeping half an eye on me.
And just behind my head while I was watching the Hare was this Blue Tit all fluffed up.
This Comma Butterfly was perched at the top of these Thistle flowers with a bit of space behind so that the background is totally out of focus and a uniform pale green to make the butterfly stand out.
A few Gatekeeper Butterflies were also in the same area but they didn’t stay still for long.
While I was taking these photos I heard a noise behind me and saw two Roe Deer gallop across the field only a short distance away. They were much too quick for me to get my camera up to take a photo. They quickly disappeared into the woods and down the slope to the beck. So I went back to the Thistles, Brambles and Bracken and got a decent shot of a Small Copper.
When I next looked up I was being watched by this Roe Deer. It seemed reasonably relaxed and let me get a photo.
It then galloped off
and headed in the same direction as the other two deer I had seen.
I headed off in a similar direction and on the edge of the woods spotted this Puffball
and this Panther Cap. Or is it a Blusher?
I saw no more deer as I went through the woods but when I came out the other side more butterflies were around one of them being this Red Admiral.
This shot shows the powerlines cutting through the trees of Buck Wood. It is looking over the top of Tong Park Industrial Estate towards Esholt sewerage works.
This Cinnabar Moth caterpillar was spotted on 6 August on a walk between the River Aire and Leeds Liverpool Canal heading North from Buck Lane.
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