Road Trip

Red kite at wetherby on the journey down,was the start of a week in Norfolk. Somewhere i have never been before. The 6am start, meant day one was not just travelling and we could have a good look around, this paid dividends with views from the car of marsh harriers passing food and avocets at road side flashes.
car mascot

This was not planned as a wildlife holiday. But occasionally it got in the way ;)

We were lucky with the weather, cloudless sky and hot, but this has it's draw back as these

(female BBC egg laying)

become very active and don't sit still, unless.

(for he who shall remain name less)

You catch them like this (B.B.C. i think).

Oh, i must included a health warning, Norfolk has a large spider population, just in case your not fond of them

it preys on these!

or even these

and if it runs very quickly

(still trying!)

Obviously there is a bit of water about, so you see a lot of water birds

and if you go to pensthorpe (BBC spring watch base) and over rated (my opinion) you will see more from all over the world. Although it does have a very nice flower meadow,

the star for me the banded demoselle, ignored by most passers by

two hundred males and a few females along their riverside walk, but i also saw these at a lakeside location, where there was no river?

More wild locations where alive with caterpillars

With literally hundreds of garden tigers (above) at horsey mere and peacocks also in abundance

and a few of these, which i have not identified yet

A few other grassland beasts caught my attention.

Well it is the season for cricket!

The most common butterfly seen, was the speckled wood, to the point where i was sick of seeing them. One brief sighting of a swallow tail from the car had me abandoning the car and leaping over a fence, into, trouble, basically.

A Territorial thing!

which leads me to

Cause they will always land somewhere in it, if you work it out.

Black tailed skimmer.

The emperor below was watched for twenty minutes, without landing, he landed and i got this shot of in focus grass one second later he was chasing a female, was in a wheel and gave me ten minutes of brilliant wildlife watching but no more picture opportunities

so here is a couple of other moments

male broad bodied chaser, who's territory was a 10 foot ornamental circular pond

Four spot chaser in a field, not as lost as me.

and to finish a female black tailed skimmer, there is a story behind this pic, for another day.

If you get the chance go to Norfolk it has a lot to offer.