Wood sandpiper

What did I say on Monday? Cracking find by Dave Helliar this evening at the local gravel pits, I just love these birds. Unfortunately I don't love my photos but in my defence it was a long way away and the light was rapidly failing...at least you can see what it is:

Birds 'n' the bees...and spiders too

Here's my very cropped, poor excuse for photos of a honey buzzard somewhere in Dorset - a stunning pale male.

So today I got my macro lens out and tried something a bit closer...

A few honey bees

and just to round it off, my first attempts at a zebra spider, I love these jumpy little arachnids

Insects on the wing...

Visited some Dorset heathland after viewing the honey buzzards at the weekend. The buzzards never gave good enough views for photos but the insects were more than happy. The birding will no doubt pick up very soon as there seems to be more wood sandpipers being reported each day, things are starting to move.

Common Damselfly

Female Black Sympetrum

Female Common Sympetrum

Grayling

The rain stopped for a day...

Finally, the rain eased off and the sun came out for one day! What a difference a bit of sun makes too. A visit to Chard res produced a redshank (not a common bird here) as well as a couple of reed warblers, a single sparrowhawk, 2 buzzards, 11 tufted duck and 7 common sandpiper at the northern end of the (flooded) res.

Path near the duck feeding area - about 10 inches deep here

The redshank in flight near the hide

With 2 of the 7 common sandpipers at the north end

Later in the day a visit to the in-laws house at Whitestaunton produced a nice peregrine over

and plenty of Azure damselflies on their pond

Unfortunately a not-so-lucky house martin had left the nest early at some point and had succumbed a few hours after it was found...