Hello Colin

 My last trip major trip was back in February with the Grimsby Black Throated Thrush. Over five months ago. Since then with lockdown, isolation etc, I haven't actually ventured outside Hertfordshire, and there have only been a few short drives away from Stevenage. Obviously as a result, I have missed a great deal of the things that I would normally expect to see over the course of spring and summer, but on the other hand staying local has been interesting and I have had a great time. However I knew at some point that I would need to get out and about a bit more, while still considering health risks, so I gave Colin the heads up last week and we decided on a fairly Sunday short trip, both being well out of practice at this sort of thing.

 Our main site was RSPB Otmoor, which we tend to visit in late August. Despite its attractions its never really busy so I was happy to spend a few hours here. For the first time, I took the new Nikon Z7 out, along with the 300mm F2.8 lens and 1.7 converter to get an idea of how it would handle. Unfortunately I had put my back out the day before and was unsure of the weight issue but it turned out ok in the end. Its been over two years since I had used the lens, having stuck with the micro four thirds GX8 and 100-400mm lens (sometimes with the manual 500mm Nikkor), and was well pleased with the way it worked on the Z7. A lot of people have criticised the Z7 as being a poor choice for wildlife and action photography preferring the autofocus of the D850 or D5 but it seems to work for me.

 Anyway the initial section of Otmoor is the summer meadow trail which is always full of insects and flowers and we spent some time here trying to get shots of some of them. the iNaturalist app on my phone added a few new plant species to my meagre life list as well.

 Further on we discovered that there was a feeding site for the Turtle Doves in the cattle fields. despite hanging around for a bit all we had were Linnets.

 Our intention was to go up to the northern lagoons and we reached the crossroads gate and had a chat with another visitor. I was scanning the woods to the north seeing several Buzzards and a much larger paler bird with them-and Osprey! At the same moment the other chap yelled that there were Cranes flying to our west-we could certainly hear them. After a bit of headless chicken syndrome Colin and I ran back and picked up one flying over the southern marsh, but the other doubled back and dropped down into one of the cattle fields joining another one. One showed quite well but was always distant. I  never found the Osprey again though.

 The lagoons were a bit disappointing with highish water levels and apart from Lapwings the only wader present was a Little Ringed Plover, so we reluctantly returned hoping to get Brown Hairstreak in the usual spot.

 We were held up for some time when some loud purring alerted us to two Turtle Doves. They tended to stay well in a tree, flying out on a couple of occasions to another and then returning.

 The Brown hairstreaks didn't play ball. We met a couple of guys that had one sitting on a flower patch for around 15 minutes but although we had a couple of flybys none lingered, and neither did the Purple Hairstreak that dropped down briefly.

 After lunch we headed down to the BBONT reserve at Warburg. It seems to have become rather popular with dog walkers, picnickers etc but we managed to avoid most of them. The beech slopes were quiet fortunately allowing us to spend some time checking the helleborine cages. There were some Broad Leaved on the track up, in full flower but most of the cages only had small plants, a couple well past their best and a few with flower spikes. I took close ups of all of them in the hope of identifying them at home, and as it turned out all appeared to be Broad Leaved. There were no Narrow Lipped at all, and the one flower that looked good for Violet had green stems and may have been a hybrid. 

 There were no orchids in the meadows, and few birds apart from the expected Marsh Tits. Butterflies were also thin on the ground, with only one Silver Washed Fritillary, a couple of Brimstones, some whites blues and browns and a couple of Large Skippers  (Small and Essex have been thin on the ground this year).

 

All in all a fairly good test of the camera and big lens combo, and a pleasant day out with Colin again.