Stags in Velvet.

The local Red Deer stags are beginning to sport their bright summer coats together with their new seasonal antlers which will be fully formed by mid to end of July.

Each antler grows from an attachment point on the skull called a pedicle and and grows faster than any other mammal bone. While in growth it is covered by highly vascular skin called velvet. 

Linking to:
Saturday's Critters
Nature Notes
Through My Lens 

More Damsels and a Skimmer.

White-legged Damselfly (Platycnemis pennipes).  

This immature female (form lactae) was one of two individuals recorded on my woodland butterfly transect over the weekend. This individual was fairly close to Flag Pond hiding in the grasses but the other was over 300 metres away perched on a bramble leaf. Apparently it is not unusual to find an immature up to 5 km away from water!

The next two images can only be classed as record shots.

Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans). 

The females occur in five different colour forms. This individual with violet sides to the thorax would appear to be an immature female (form violacea) which will mature to have either male-type but pale-blue colouration (form typica) or olive green thorax plus a brown S8 (form infuscans).

A male Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas).

Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum). 

This was the most prominent dragonfly on the wing during my wander around the ponds in Bushy Park with the males (image above) taking a very brief rest in-between patrolling their territories, chasing away other males, whilst looking for a female to mate with.
I eventually located the distinctively coloured teneral / immature, possibly female (image below) hiding deep within the grasses some way away from the water.

Linking to:
Nature Notes.

WBW - Tit Family.

All the birds called 'Tits' featured in this post are mainly woodland breeding species that I regularly encounter on my patch walks and with one exception are also regular garden feeder visitors plus two species have nested in the garden some years.

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). A common breeding resident on my local patch and a regular daily visitor to the garden feeder also using one of the three nest boxes in most years. Unfortunately no evidence of nesting in a box so far this year. As a youngster I remember their antics of  breaking through the milk bottle tops sitting on the doorstep and stealing the creamy top off the milk.

Coal Tit (Periparus ater). A resident mainly of coniferous or mixed woodland that often makes use of garden feeders during the winter months. It has a repetitive piercing call of  'situi' and 'tsevi' enabling the watcher to home in on its location within the woodland canopy. Excluding the Crested Tit, which is found in the northern Caledonian pine forests, it is our smallest Tit species.

Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris) whose name doesn't match its habitat of damper deciduous woods. I usually  identify their presence by their call; a 'pitchoo' which sounds a bit like a sneeze but sightings are very infrequent hence the lack of suitable images to post here.

Often confused with the similar black capped but slightly larger Willow Tit which is now something of a rarity in Surrey with my last recorded sighting in 2008.

Great Tit (Parus major) uttering its repetitive 'teacher teacher' notes. Easily identified as it is the largest of our Tits and also well adapted to nesting in gardens. When visiting the feeders it will often fight off other, smaller tits to get to the food but the resident Robin will always boss them around!

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus). This one is not closely related to the other 'true' tits but a member of the small Aegithalidae (Bushtit) family. I always enjoy an encounter with these active and acrobatic feeders, often in a group, when they are hunting insects and spiders amongst the smaller branches while constantly chatting to one another. During the occasional hard winters we might a few visits to the garden feeders.

Linking to:

Nature Notes

Wild Bird Wednesday
I'D-Rather-B-Birdin'

Tenacity.

An overcast and windy morning today so definitely not ideal conditions for seeking out any wildlife around the margins of a local grassy meadow that I discovered on arrival had been mowed a few hours earlier! Unperturbed I wandered until a small blue flutter dropped into the vegetation to ride out the gusty conditions.

A quick search revealed this male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) gripping on tightly to the dried seed pods of a grass stem. I was amazed at the tenacity of this tiny, flimsy butterfly, as the wind blew the stem and its rider in all directions, often bending to within inches of ground level, thereby posing the 'watcher' with a few challenges including keeping the subject in focus.

  

Both images taken handheld with the 70-300mm lens plus 1.4x converter [ISO 400; f/11: 1/320-1/500 @ 330 & 420mm respectively].

Linking to:

Nature Notes hosted by Michelle:

Through My Lens, a new meme hosted by Mersad. 

New Flutters.

A warm, sunny but windy walk across a sloping chalk downland meadow above Juniper Bottom on Monday morning produced two new sightings.

Excellent numbers of Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) flitting about so I was able to locate a few resting individuals fairly easily.

However capturing a Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja) was far more problematical. Typically the males fly close to the ground constantly searching for a hidden female in the grasses and rarely take a rest so I had to be very, very patient and eventually caught up with the one below. 

More images to follow later this week ... see 'Friday Flutters' on my main blog. FAB.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday ..on Tuesday and Nature Notes.

Sunbathing Reptiles.

The boardwalk at Thursley Common is a great place to view a variety of wildlife and even to sunbathe ... that is if you are a reptile. 

On the same day that I spent some time with a pair of Teal and the fast flying Hobby (see link above) I also enjoyed getting close views of a few of the numerous Common Lizards that love to soak up the suns rays on the edge of the boardwalk.

By treading very quietly these creatures can be very accommodating but conversely if, like many visitors, you don't look where you are stepping they will immediately dive for cover. 

This one (above) was very alert ... just one click of the shutter and it immediately turned its head to see who or what might be intruding its space.

Dull brown is the typical colouring although it may be tinged red, yellow, grey or green but there is always the dark black stripe that differentiates it from the Sand Lizard that is also found on the sandy heath close by.

Linking to Saturday's Critters, Macro Monday 2 and Nature Notes.

Patch Birds.

For this week's edition of Nature Notes and Wild Bird Wednesday I am posting images of a few of the species that I regularly encounter during my patch walks around Epsom Common Ponds during the winter months. You can find more information about this local patch by visiting the 'Birding Location' page on my main blog 'Wildlife Watching with FAB'.

Cormorants drop in from time to time to fish for a meal and can often be seen perching on one of the old tree stumps, wings outstretched, hoping to catch some winter sunshine.

Grey Heron. Nest building was well underway in early February somewhere nearby.

A few Tufted Ducks regularly take up temporary residence during the winter but when the pond froze over in mid February they moved elsewhere.

At long last the Black-headed Gull has nearly switched into its adult summer plumage sporting its dark chocolate coloured cap.

The largest of our winter thrushes is the Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) which migrated here from Northern Europe during last October will very soon be returning northwards again. I have only recorded a few individuals this winter compared to the large flocks of Redwing which have continuously evaded the lens!

The Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos), whose dogmatic and varied song is a joy to behold, is a year round resident.

The Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) always sings from a high vantage point.

You can listen to the distinctive songs and calls of the Song and Mistle Thrush HERE.

Up until a few years ago sightings of Coot on the Great Pond were very infrequent but now it is unusual not to see at least two or three on every visit.

A very infrequent visitor on the pond is the Greylag Goose and a pair turned up at the end of last week accompanied by a single Barnacle Goose (see below), a definite rarity for my patch.

One of the regular Canada Geese wasn't very happy about the intrusion of these other geese and attempted to intimidate the much smaller Barnacle Goose, but it wasn't fazed at all by the Canada's boisterous splashing antics.  FAB.

Black and White Beauties.

During the past few days I have been fortunate to catch up with two of our very distinctive black and white butterflies.

Last Thursday it was the Marbled White (Melanargia galathea). Photographed amongst the tall grasses on the southern slope of the North Downs at Ranmore Common. [450D with 70-300 lens].

Today it was the turn of a White Admiral (Limenitis camilla). Photographed in a small sunlit glade along a path leading to Banks Common. [PowerShot SX50 HS].

Both species are likely to also feature in posts on my main blog very soon. During today's stroll I also saw plenty of Meadow Brown and Ringlets, Comma, Red Admiral, Large Skipper and a handful of Silver-washed Fritillary. You can view my photos of all of these species HERE.  FAB.

Linking to Nature Notes and Our World Tuesday.

Canada Goslings.

Canada goslings photographed during their daily feeding sessions around the Stew Pond on Epsom Common. The first image (above) was taken twelve days ago of one individual from a total brood of eight. The following two images were taken today and surprisingly all eight are still with us but there is a definite size difference between some of this family.

Linking to Our World Tuesday and Nature Notes

Longhorn Beetle.

During a recent visit to Lakenheath, Suffolk (click this link for the post on 'The Early Birder' blog) I came across this interesting Longhorn Beetle.

Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle (Agapanthia villosoviridescens)

A large (up to 20mm long) and very distinctive longhorn beetle with the golden iridescent bloom on the elytra and thorax plus the long antennae with dark and light bands.  It is a stem borer that breeds in the stems of thistles and other herbaceous plants.

Habitat:  Mainly found in moist meadows and hedgerows. Adults feed on umbellifers such as Hogweed and Cow Parsley as well as on nettles.

UK Status:  This beetle is fairly common in the south and east of England.

Linking to Macro Monday 2 and Nature Notes.