Another trip to Minsmere and North Warren, lots of Warblers plus something different this time

Last Wednesday was hot and sunny, early on the Warblers were showing well at Minsmere but late morning it got busy and hot so I went to North Warren in the hope of seeing Hobbies again. Here's what happened.

At Minsmere a Reed Warbler popped up in a bush right in front of me.

Singing Sedge Warbler.

Another Reed Warbler.

Common Blue Damselflies, I think.

Young Dunnock

Experimenting with semaphore.

4 Spotted Chaser

Stonechat

Bird's Foot Trefoil

White throat

Then off to North Warren to look for Hobbies

Sedge Warbler heading to it's nest.

4 Spotted Chaser just taking off. 

From the hide where I've seen Hobbies before I was lucky to look down at water at the right moment.

A Grass Snake, about 3 to 4 feet long came out of the reeds. The water is covered in seeds from nearby trees.

Then it made it's way back into the reeds.

On the way back to my car, sadly the best part of 2 miles away on a very hot afternoon, I saw my first Black-tailed Skimmer.

Then another 4 Spotted Chaser.

On technical point for this and the last picture I pushed the ISO up to 3200, even though it was in full sun, to get get a shutter speed of 1/5000 sec to try and freeze the wing motion and used F8 to increase the depth of focus. I'm very pleased with the lack of grain at that ISO, to be fair the pictures have been processed in DXO Photo Lab 4 which does a great job of reducing high ISO noise.

Then one of those what are those people ahead of me looking at moments, a Fox in a field of Konik Ponies

All in all, well worth the long hot walk.

All the best

Trevor

  • What a cracking set Trevor, superb selection and photos, thanks for posting. Going to have another look at them on full screen now :)
  • Cracking photos Trevor, love the Sedge Warbler and the four spotted Chaser, very clear. Great capture of the Fox happily beside the Ponies.
  • All the photos are brilliant, I love that stonechat in flight, and the sedge warbler with the families lunch, brilliant, and definitely worth the long hot walk for us as well as you (he he heee).

  • I always find it interesting looking at what people choose as their favourite shots from my pictures and the variation of choices. Nobody has mentioned my favourites from this selection, the swimming  grass snake. I've never seen a live adult in the open before, sadly I've seen one or two dead ones, and the shot I've always wanted was one swimming. I have seen little bootlace Grass Snakes in our compost heap and sunbathing Adders at Minsmere.

    Bootlace Grass snakes in the compost heap in August 2019.

    Three Male Adders sunbathing in February 2020, building up testosterone for the spring.

    Many thanks for your positive comments.

    Best Regards,

    Trevor

  • The Fox and Konik sounds like a good pub name to me !! Great mixture of photos
  • Good captures of the male adders Trevor, never have seen any though they are around us here. A first for me "Bootlace grass snake" lovely little creatures.
  • The Fox & Konik, I like it. Thumbsup

    Another set of fabulous photos Trevor. The fox is looking good and healthy, and as always, I love the bird with insect(s) in beak(s), but you can't escape the chance snapping a pic of a snake....

    I was trying to ascertain whether those damselflies were mating, or the front one was just resting its tail on the other. My guess, resting its tale, because females tend not to be blue, but I could easily be wrong. Whatever, it was still a good clear photo.

  • Super snake shots, Trevor, I've never seen any of ours, but my daughter was in Vietnam a couple of years ago and said she saw one, so I asked what it looked like and she said "Dad, I didn't stop to look, I was too busy running away"!!
    Love clear shots of the warblers too, despite the twiggery!!
  • Thank you Mike,
    I've just looked up about Common Blue Damselflies and the female can vary from black and green to black and blue and there is some green near the base of the wings of the lower one. Not sure if they were mating though and I can't remember if they took of as one.
    Trevor
  • TJS said:
    Thank you Mike,


    I've just looked up about Common Blue Damselflies and the female can vary from black and green to black and blue and there is some green near the base of the wings of the lower one. Not sure if they were mating though and I can't remember if they took of as one.
    Trevor

    I'd done the same, look them up, and came to the same conclusion. Generally, when mating the female curls up, but that may be at the point she is ready to release the eggs, I don't know.

    It doesn't detract from the fact they're good photos.