June 2015

The first month of Summer is over, but some pictures from June 2015 remain unpublished. Let's fix this.

One of my favourites is a female Common Redstart.

Red-backed Shrike, male and female.

Corn Bunting

Troyeshchyna outskirts are seen from Puhivka meadows. The direct distance is about 10 km.

Grey Heron is busy with fishing.

Wild wild wild grassland.

Montagu's Harrier, adult male. Nearby was also a female; they were hunting together, you know.

Common Whinchat.

Common Whitethroat.

After six years of birding, I didn't expect to find a lifer here, but Puhivka is a magic place! Blyth's Reed Warbler! By the way, it's a very rare sighting in Ukraine, especially in the Kyiv region. As far as I know, there were a few records of Blyth's Reed Warbler north of Kharkiv, in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

Kestrel.

I will finish from where I started, with Common Redstart, which is nesting somewhere near my dacha. Interesting that this is the only place where I've ever seen a Common Redstart! Every year, I can enjoy these beautiful birds in my backyard: they arrive in spring, sing day and night, fly around, and then feed their nestlings. Thank you, Mother Nature, for this pleasure!

Let's look at all the family.

A female, ladies first!

Her husband and a father of their kids.

And one of their shy children ))