Azerbaijan

I leave for a posting in Azerbaijan this weekend and should be there for at least a year. Birding highlights should be Guldenstadt's redstart, caucasian black grouse, great rosefinch, caucasian snowcock, lammergeier, snowfinch and red-fronted serin. There's also good numbers of goitered gazelle and wolf to find too, plus God knows how many odonata and reptiles to photograph.

I've added a page of my annotated sighting sin Azerbaijan.

Species a day

Some more species from a walk at the RHS in Wisley.

Emperor dragonfly, Surrey, England

Pied wagtail, Surrey, England

Little grebe, Surrey, England

Magpie, Surrey, England

Emperor dragonfly

I've been trying to get some photos of an emperor dragonfly for a couple of weeks. They are over 3 inches long but highly territorial and difficult to approach. This individual posed just long enough on water lilies at the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley in Surrey.

Its size can be seen from the common blue damselflies that were mobbing it like crows mob an eagle.

Farne islands: Arctic Terns in Flight

Terns are a delicate bird that are great to photograph in flight given the right light conditions.

Species a day

More new species...

Ringlet, Surrey, England

White-legged damselfly, Surrey, England

Beautiful demoiselle, Surrey, England

Large skipper, Surrey, England

Comma, Surrey, England

Wey Navigation Canal: New butterflies and damselflies

I took my 400mm lens on a walk along the Wey Navigation Canal today. It may not be as good a lens as the 100mm dedicated Canon macro I have but its 'reach' means I can shoot from the hip and grab a few of the more mobile subjects.

This meant I captured reasonable photos of 3 new damselfly species and 3 new butterflies.

White-legged damselfly

Common blue damselfly

Beautiful demoiselle

Large skipper

Ringlet

Comma

Farne Islands: Trip List

List of everything I saw on my trip to the Farne Islands.

Birds:

1. Mallard
2. Common eider
3. Grey heron
4. Northern fulmar
5. Northern gannet
6. Great cormorant
7. European shag
8. Common ringed plover
9. Eurasian oystercatcher
10. Jackdaw
11. Black-legged kittiwake
12. Black-headed gull
13. Herring gull
14. Lesser black-backed gull
15. Great black-headed gull
16. Bridled tern
17. Roseate tern
18. Common tern
19. Arctic tern
20. Sandwich tern
21. Common guillemot
22. Razorbill
23. Atlantic puffin
24. Feral pigeon
25. Collared dove
26. Barn swallow
27. House martin
28. Rock pipit
29. House sparrow

Mammals:

1. Grey seal
2. Common seal

Species a day

More photos for my species a day challenge...

Banded demoiselle, Surrey, England

Blue-tailed damselfly, Surrey, England

Muntjac deer, Surrey, England

Farne Islands: More Arctic Terns

The puffins weren't the only birds busy providing for their young. The arctic terns, bringing back single fish, were probably working harder.

Farne Islands: Kittiwakes

The commonest nesting gull in the Farne Islands is the rather vocal kittiwake.

Odonata on the Wey Navigation Canal

We're going through a bit of a mini heatwave in England this weekend and I went for a lunchtime walk along the Wey Navigation Canal in Surrey.

July and August are the best months to see odonata in flight and the canal is home to several species. Damselflies were most evident particularly banded demoiselle and several other species were hawking the waters edges including azure damselfly, large red damselfly and I got my first photo of a blue-tailed damselfly.

There were also several huge emperor dragonfly patrolling mid-stream but they were too mobile for photos.

I'm not too skilled at odonata identification so I may return tomorrow a little bit earlier for another attempt at some photos, the morning should be a bit cooler and the insects a bit less active.

Other sightings of note were a muntjac deer, a pair of common buzzard and a large grass snake (about 18" long) that swam across the canal from below my feet.

Blue-tailed damselfly

Large red damselfly

Male banded demoiselle

Male banded demoiselles

Farne Islands: More Puffins

I was lucky that the puffin chicks only hatched a few days before I arrived in the Farne Islands. By the time I got there the adults were busy feeding their broods.

Species a Day

Five more species for Species a Day.

Puffin

Guillemot

Shag

Arctic tern

Common tern

Farne Islands: Arctic Terns

The arctic tern is probably the worlds most travelled species. It spends winter in the southern polar regions before migrating to the northern polar regions in the summer. Up to 2,000 pairs nest on Inner Farne every year.

Fiercely protective of their nests it's essential to wear a hat when walking the island to avoid being pecked!

The terns nest on every available space on the island and chicks hatch just by the footpaths.