What's buzzing or flying near you 2023 ?

Red Breasted Merganser, here for the Winter. The long thin bill is serrated enabling it to hold on to fish.

 

The Guillemots are back and packed in their cliff ledge. A few Fulmar Petrels have also returned.

 

Eye to eye with a Buzzard.

 

@strongylodon I saw a lot of geese flying over today, heading west. They seemed rather late if they're migrating. Your thoughts would be welcome please.

 

I get geese flying over, I was under the impression that they fly from where they over night to feeding grounds during the day.

 

@Sheal, some geese are still arriving from Russia, mainly White Fronted and and Pink Footed. They usually stay until mid March but some may depart earlier.
If they are high then they are usually on migration east or west. If fairly low then as @pete says maybe going to local feeding grounds.

Here are two scarce winter visitors to Poole harbour, a female Long Tailed Duck (doesn't have a long tail!) and a Slavonian Grebe.

 

Thanks for the info Strongy.

 

Can anyone identify these Geese?

 

I think they are Greylag Geese @Balc.

 

@Sheal Thanks for the id! Having looked it up I think your right but I don't know if they have pink legs as you see in the picture they were sitting down & not a leg in sight! But they do have orange beaks though.

 

Always nice to see @wiseowl, especially in the garden.

 

@strongylodon has confirmed their identity @Balc and he has a great knowledge of birds.

 

Kestrel.

 

I think this year I have seen much less butterflies than I have ever seen! The most common by far was the Cabbage or Great White. But even they were much more scarce this year. I saw a few Peacocks & a few Tortoiseshells & one or 2 I can't identify. Even Bees & Hoverflies were scarce around here this year!

Our county council left some areas unmown this year for the first time in an effort to encourage more insects. I didn't see many flying insects in these areas so I don't know if they will repeat the experiment next year.

However the county council has been sowing l - o -n - g beds with wildflower mixes for several years now & these have attracted lots of insects. They planted dozens of flowering trees in the autumn last year among the extremely long flowerbed, probably a mile long or more, (it's broken up into many long beds but the total distance is probably at least a mile, it takes at least 20 minutes to walk the length of them!), that has had wildflower mixes sown for at 4-5 years. I've taken photos of many flowers with bees & butterflies & hoverflies on them!
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The last 2 pictures are from last year, in Riverside Park.
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