Whimbrel

not many pics of late due to the heat and being busy -- this party of Whimbrel landed in front of me briefly before flying off to roost

Essex Skipper new patch butterfly

a local patch tick for me; thanks to Martin for putting me onto this close scrutiny skipper; close to a very busy road it was very elusive appearing on the flower for a few seconds and then disappearing for about an hour at a time; 

I tried to get the distinctive ID features in the photo!

Small Skipper comparison

Common Blue

Gatekeeper

White Admiral

ET and SU

shots from Alkborough -- the Little Egret landed close by and then jumped up before I could check my camera settings --- I was on AE and compensated by about 3 stops from the previous shot but amazingly it has worked well with this white bird and made a good dark backdrop out of a pretty mundane scene --- just shows luck plays a big part in photography; I needed some Shelduck shots so this closish bird was useful

stunning Black-tails

summer icelandic Black-tails on the Humber

look away now if you like baby birds

nature in the raw -- one Herring Gull snatched the chick from the nest and was immediately set upon by a second gull -- a tug of war developed with the Kittiwake chick as the rope!

Gannets

Favourite Kittiwakes

some shots which I liked the outcome of ---

fighting Kitts

these two Kittiwakes locked bills and spiraled down towards the sea like a huge sycamore seed

Bempton

6 GB of Gannets and Kitts to work through from today -- more to come

islandica Black-tail

some nice bright birds turning up locally now