Sunday 24 May 2009

Painted lady and mystery bird

The damselfly are emerging from the pond every day now. They climb up the stems of pond plant and then split out of their larval skin and climb up the stem to dry out before they are able to fly.
A painted lady butterfly visited the garden today.

When the wings are closed the painted ladies colouration was a perfect match of camouflage against stone slabs.


I looked into the distance and saw a sea gull mobbing another bird. This a behaviour that I observe from time to time when they dive bomb the sparrowhawks.

However, when I enlarged the picture I was unsure of the bird in question. It appears to be a bird of prey, any ideas? It looks a little bit like a red kite because of tail shape, redy/brown body and white underwing markings, but I may well be mistaken

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