A wander with this week's wildlife (26 Sept 2025)

From tiny blue butterflies to one-tonne coos.

This week is a compilation of photos from a couple of weeks ago (before ‘the incident’ with my camera) plus photos I’ve taken on my Dad’s camera, or during this week on previous years.

My beloved camera should be back in my hands in a week or two, and I’m planning to take it somewhere special to celebrate.

These beautiful highland cows were browsing and resting on the chalk hills where I went looking for the Pied Flycatcher I’ve been dreaming of seeing for years.

My Granny – Scottish – pronounced it ‘heeland coos’, and I’ll never not say it in my head when I see them. These coos certainly attracted plenty of flies for a potential flycatcher to feast upon.

But after careful checking of photos, the five Flycatchers I spotted were all Spotted (not Pied). Still beautiful, and endlessly entertaining to watch. I can wait for my first Pied.

Elsewhere, this illusive Stoat – was taking a break from defending its reputation as a fearsome hunter. For twenty minutes, it danced and bounced and rolled on the membrane used to suppress the reeds at a local cress-bed reserve.

The Mallards and Moorhens nearby kept a very close eye on its antics, but the Stoat wasn’t thinking about food.

The same location gave me my much-longed-for first photo of a perched Kingfisher.

He’s a male – females have an orange lower ‘mandible’ (the bottom half of their beak).

You can usually tell if a bird is an adult or juvenile, because juveniles have a white tip on the very end of their beak. This bird has lost the very end of his beak, but I do suspect he’s an adult.

On the walk that saw my camera’s demise, there were gravelly paths alongside a canal, lined with Buddleja bushes.

The Buddleja blooms are magnets for butterflies like this Large White, while the Common Blues prefer to hang out in long grass where the Knapweed and Ragwort was flowering not long ago.

Overhead, the Ravens have been very vocal the past few weeks. I snapped this one while borrowing my Dad’s camera.

That diamond-shaped tail that comes to a point (though it’s less obvious in this photo) and the bulging throat are tell-tale signs that this is not a Crow. So is that bulky beak and the sheer size of the bird.

They’re doing well in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, following a decade or more of increases in their populations. As a kid, I’d never have seen one of these unless I was on holiday far away. Now, they nest alongside Peregrine’s at the nearby electricity substation.

This beautiful Robin is showing off some beautiful plumage. It has come through this year’s moult and is ready for it’s role as ‘star of the festive season’ in a few months’ time.

On this week in 2023, I borrowed a macro lens to explore my garden in finer detail. These Parent Bugs were some of the most obliging subjects.

They are a type of Shield Bug, but have earned their name because all other Shield Bug species abandon their eggs to their fate without a backward glance. The female Parent Bug stays with her eggs and young, protecting them until they are full grown.

Talking of babies getting all grown up – this year’s Goldfinches are finally getting some red on their faces. Until now, they’ve been very plain (and the subject of many ID requests on Facebook bird groups!).

Over the coming weeks I’m hoping to visit a beautiful pine woodland to share here. It’s a bit of a monoculture (except for the patches of invasive Rhododendron).

But the striking orange sand and dying-back bracken against the deep green of the pine trees make for a nice change of scene. And with partridges, woodpeckers and winter finches (eventually), it can be surprisingly lively.

Until then, let me know what wildlife you’ve encountered this week. And thanks for being here!

Gem