Oldt1mer - Keith's photos with the keyword: Lancashire

This is, I think, a female Eristalis pertinax which landed, for a very short time, on a small patch of Ragwort - Senecio jacobaea. The Eristalis is a large genus of around 99 species of Hover and Drone Flies which makes it very difficult to positively identify this one, especially from just the side view. (Maybe someone with more knowledge of this can help?). Common Ragwort is a very widespread 'weed' which grows up to 1m high and is highly attractive to Bees and other insects. Seen by the Leeds-Liverpool Canal near Pennington Flash, Leigh, Lancashire. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

This is the, very cute, Little Grebe - Tachybaptus ruficollis - also known as the Dabchick, which, at 9 to 11.5 inches (23-29cm) long is the smallest of the European Grebe family. A quite shy bird it often remains out of sight hiding in waterside vegetation and if it feels threatened when on a rare trip into open water, will quickly dive and only surface unseen some distance away. Because it is such a great diver and underwater swimmer, its feet are placed towards the back of the body making it rather clumsy on land, which is why it spends most of its its life on the water only coming ashore to breed and occasionally eat. Even its nest is built on the water, using waterweed to make a floating platform. This one was seen in its summer breeding colours at Pennington Flash, Leigh, Lancashire. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.

The Northern Lapwing - Vanellus vanellus - is a bird of the Plover family more commonly known as simply the Lapwing or Green Plover. It is also known in some areas as the Peewit (or Pewit), Tuit (or Tew-It) and the Pyewipe on account of its display calls. As a boy, I used to see many of these lovely birds feeding on worms and insects in the fields and farmlands and often coming across their ground scrapes with eggs which they fiercely defend by various tricks and deceits. Unfortunately they have suffered a decline and are now on the red list in the UK. It is a highly migratory bird, wintering as far away as North Africa, northern India, Nepal and even China, flying mainly by day in large flocks. This one was seen from a hide at Martin Mere, Burscough, Lancashire. This Picture is fully © Copyrighted. None of my images may be copied, reproduced or altered in any form or manner or placed on the internet or any other social media, or in any form of publication either print or otherwise, in any form or manner without my written permission.