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