Iffley Meadows BBOWT Reserve 14th April

Thousands of Snake's head Fritillaries in flower today.

 Snake's head fritillary & Bumble bee

 Snake's head Fritillary

 Snake's head Fritillary

Aston Upthorpe downs 11th April

Spent a few hours on the downs today. 9 Pasque flowers were seen in flower. After taking some pics of these I decided to look amongst the Juniper to see if I could find any Juniper Shield bugs as this would be a new species for me. After a bit of searching I was pleased to find 3. A Green shield bug was also seen as well as 2 Heather ladybirds. A couple of Wheatears were seen in a field.

 Pasque flower

 Pasque flower

 Juniper shieldbug

 Juniper shieldbug

Farmoor revisited 8th April

I went along to Farmoor today to try my luck with the Red necked grebe again. Unfortunately the bird wasn't coming much closer than it did the other day!
A few Sand martins and Swallows were seen over FII and a single Yellow wagtail flew over calling. A Willow warbler and Blackcap were heard singing near Lower whitley farm.

 Red necked grebe

 Red necked grebe

 Red necked grebe

 Red necked grebe

 Great crested grebe

 Mallard

 Coot

 Mallard

 Courting Great crested grebes

 R n grebe verses Fisherman

Farmoor 6th April

Spent a couple of hours over farmoor this morning to catch up with the Red necked grebe. The bird was first seen along the southern end of FII only briefly,before it drifted off to the western end never coming that close to the bank unfortunately.

 Red necked grebe

 Red necked grebe

 Red necked grebe

 Red necked grebe

 Mallard

 Greylag Goose