Back from a successful foray to the south-west in search of butterflies and also managed to see a few birds along the way. Even the journey down was good with 9 buzzards and a red kite along the A14.

The main focus was to see large blue butterfly at a re-introduction site near Glastonbury. Thankfully the weather was favourable so last Wednesday we headed to Collard Hill near Glastonbury. The omens were good as the walk from the carpark produced a cracking display of pyramidal and common spotted orchids. Once into the hill there were marbled white butterflies everywhere with at least 50 seen. Although I was expecting the large blues to be larger than the commoner species they were smaller that I thought and very mobile! Although it was fairly overcast, it was warm and they were very lively. After a bit of patience and a lot of rushing about I did manage to get good close views although not really good enough to photograph (should have taken the longer lens!) but I have god a couple of record shots which I will post at a later date. Apart from the blues, there we had fantastic views over the south Levels, 3 raven, 7 buzzard, painted lady and several Emporer dragonflies.

We spent the afternoon at Westhay and Ham Wall were we had the long staying great white egret, a brief bittern, kingfisher and a male marsh harrier.

Visited a local site for nightjar were we had at least 6 birds (1 female) very close to the carpark. Flight views of the male were pretty good as it got dark.
Also had time to watch the mighty Somerset Sabres trash the Glamorgan Dragons in a t20 cricket match at the County Ground.


Ringing at our site in North Norfolk has been excellent over the last few weeks with huge numbers of birds ringed. In fact we have ringed just over 150 birds in the last two weekends alone! Most of the birds have been youngsters and these numbers must dry up soon. The main species have been tits,blackcaps and chaffinches but there have been a few unusual species for us. Highlights have been 3 treecreepers, 5 chiffchaff, 2 jay and a whitethroat. Unfortunatly, 2 fly-over crossbills last weekend didn't drop in.

I haven't had chance to edit my photos yet but I will post some in the next few days