Fellside Fare.

The perfect sunny and warm day on Wednesday - probably the last this year - to check out a couple of fells.

Stonechat. Ana Minguez.

First to Harrisend where there was still a few boggy areas to negotiate, and a couple of run-off ditches to leap across, I found 10 Stonechat, two less than my last visit on 14 July when I saw 12 birds with evidence of four breeding pairs here this year, a claim which remains the same today.

Also seen on Harrisend, at least 20 Meadow Pipit, a single Reed Bunting which made an attack on a Stonechat, the same Stonechat then made an attack on a Meadow Pipit. A lone Red Grouse, a Buzzard and Kestrel. Butterflies seen were 12 Red Admiral all south, and a single Small Tortoiseshell.  

I gave the west side of Hawthornthwaite just an hour on the lower slopes, with only three birds seen in the hour, thankfully two of them were Stonechat which were seen as a pair, the same as my last visit up here on 8 June when they were accompanied by a lone juvenile, the other bird seen was a Meadow Pipit. Butterflies were, 6 Small Tortoiseshell and a Red Admiral.

A short cut back to Lancaster from here through Doeholme had a Wheatear on a roadside fence post. 

The Bug.

Common Green Capsid. Pete Woodruff.

Small though it was, I couldn't miss seeing this bright green creature flying across our kitchen to land on the washer. The Common Green Capsid Lygocoris pabulinus, is a species of the bug family Miridae, and is a garden pest which damages leaves and fruits, it probably got into the house via a bag of apples given to us by a neighbour, or worse still it was off our plum tree.

My thanks to Ana @ Naturanafotos for the excellent Stonechat images.

With luck I may just get a little time to check out around the Lune Estuary later today....here's hoping.