Breeding Bee-eaters

At the back end of last week news was released of some Bee-eaters breeding in a quarry at Brampton near Carlisle, two pairs plus a couple of helpers apparently, I was out with Pete Watson on Sunday and we thought we’d go have a look, the weather forecast wasn’t brilliant but at least it wasn’t raining when we got there, just one nest site on view and at least one bird showed regularly if a little distantly throughout the morning, also a Wheatear present. Early afternoon we headed south to Foulshaw Moss where a pair of Ospreys have fledged three youngsters, two birds were seen by the nest tree plus several Ravens flying around, this is also the site where White Faced Darter has been reintroduced but the advent of a prolonged rain shower put paid to finding any of them or going round to Arnside Knott for the Butterflies, we ended up at Leighton Moss which was fairly quiet, all the Ducks are in eclipse at the moment, there were a few Waders about but at least a Great White Egret was viewable from Lower Hide.

a bit distant but good scope views

keeping an eye on a big black Crow

back at the car park we discovered it occasionally took to landing on a couple of tree's

and was just a little closer than at the nest site

female Black Darter at Foulshaw Moss

GWE at Leighton Moss