Quail of a time

For once my timing was perfect. A warm day and still air in summer is precisely the cue to go out listening for Quail. And so that's what I did last Friday evening. And I located three different calling birds in a couple of hours or so cycling around the lanes. Excellent!!

The first was near Kelk Lake, calling from a field of spring corn along with a couple of Grey Partridge. I spent a while listening to it calling every minute or two, hoping that it would stray into the tramlines for a quick view. It didn't. The second bird was close to Great Kelk coming from somewhere in one of two wheat fields. This one was much closer (louder) but their voice carries so well it's difficult to know how close. Third and final bird was at Lowthorpe, also in wheat. It was 10.30pm by this time and I'd had enough. I tried again on Saturday, visiting two of the three sites again, this time it was much colder and rather breezy and there was not a squeak to be heard. Draw your own conclusions about when is best to hear Quail!

While it is clear there are a number of birds in the area to call this an 'influx' might be a bit over-egging it. I think it's luck and we get some every year. Quail are widely reported in Holderness each year with occasional 'influxes'. However, you need to get lucky and the evening weather conditions help greatly, not something I've had in my summer visits over recent years. My last record was in 2009 when I flushed a male at Harpham in August - blogged here.

Apart from this excitement the weekend was as you'd expect, summer in full swing, lots of baby birds and general family activity. A Hobby was seen hunting on Sunday lunchtime and after my grumbles about missing species in the previous blog post I managed to see a Cormorant briefly. More write up later.

Some photos first.

Female Common Blue butterfly. Aren't they fantastic? Early June seems rather early for them but maybe the long dry spring has moved the timing forward - will that mean a better or worse summer for them?

Large Skipper at Kelk Beck. I've not seen any of these in the last two years so it was very pleasing to see several this weekend. Their shape and flight is more like a moth but they're lovely little critters when you see them close up. 

 

Male Azure Damselfly along Kelk Beck. I've never paid much attention to damselflys before and this is remarkably the first one I've properly idenfied in the area. Apparently they're very common. I've no reason to doubt that.

Female Common Blue Damselfly at Harpham. The greyer colour would be replaced by bright blue in a male. The tail pattern differentiates it from the Azure Damselfly. 

Enough for now. Be back with a few birdy pictures.