I took a spin up to Offaly as I had to find Whinchat for my yearly list, and one of the best places to see them is the Shannon Callows. I`ve had them here the last 5 years and heard their numbers have being dropping over the last couple of years and was a little worried they might not be around. When I arrived I was even more worried as we have had a lot of rain (2 and half time more then any other June on record) last month and the callows been a flood plain was flooded. But there was still some dry patches and I set off in search of Whinchat. After an hour looking I finally found 3 birds 2 males and 1 female. One of the males was in good voice and I enjoyed listening to him sing. I also had snipe calling, a Blackcap having a bath in a pool of water and 2 Redpolls in full summer plumage chasing each other in and out of the bushes along with 10 or more Reed Bunting and many Sedge Warblers. So after here I headed for Boora Parklands in search of insects and of course Grey Partridge. I had 9 Grey Partridges in total including 5 chicks. So even though I was dodging showers all day it was still a great day out and I`ll leave you with some of my snaps.
Common Green Garsshopper
Common Groundhopper
Crab Spider with dinner!!
Cranefly
Greenbottle
Soldier Beetle
Common Weavel
Ringlet Buttlerfly
Silver Y Moth
Small Heath Butterfly
Early Marsh Orchid
Common Frog
Amber Snail
Common Darter
Male Whinchat in full song
Gery Partridge with chicks
And there was plenty of Lapwings about as well.
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