Rutland Bird Fair : Not A Bird ...

... but an Elephant Hawk Moth (Deilephila elpenor) caterpillar.
GO LARGE!
Here's another shot of it.

Wow, I've had a brilliant day - and ended up blipping something totally unexpected!
I've been to the Bird Fair (a 'twitcher's paradise, held annually at Rutland Water).
It was my first time there and my first meet with some who I've 'known' for a couple of years via Springwatch/Autumnwatch forums, Friends of Nature website, Twitter and FaceBook - some of whom are also blippers.

A really special part of the day (for me anyway) was the chance to finally meet up with the lovely Emy (Emyjane of Blipfoto DailyWild and Little Larry Academy fame). I'd kept the fact I was going from her, and with a non-blipping friend as my accomplice, keeping in touch via texts, managed to arrange for Emy to be in a certain place at a certain time, and totally surprised her. It worked a treat! It really was brilliant to finally meet her.
I'd taken Blip Bear with me and he insisted on having his photo taken with Emy - it's a gorgeous one of them both - see it here.
There were lots of us at one point in a group, along with the well known wildlife presenter Mike Dilger who's in regular contact via Twitter with some of us. We all ended up in the marquee in the food area having food, drinks and a natter. So I thought it'd be great to grab a shot of the whole clan. Mike Dilger's in the black T-shirt with his sunglasses on top of his head .....

Later we went to watch the Bird Brain of Britain quiz, presented by Mike Dilger. It's educational and very, very funny! Mike himself is also a very charismatic and funny guy! I was originally planning to blip this photo of Mike presenting the prize to John Clark of the African Bird Club, the winner by a narrow margin (a generous sum of money also goes to his organisation for his win).

Soon it was 5 o clock and time for me to head home. But as I was heading for the car park I noticed one of the Bird Fair security chaps with a group of 4 or 5 people all peering at a clump of the Willow herb which grows along the edge of the track. Of course I had to go and investigate! It turned out to be this beautiful Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar which one of the security guard's colleagues had apparently spotted earlier. Needless to say I and those others all wanted photos - which is why my Bird Fair blip turns out to be a caterpillar rather than something bird related! As the group of us there were taking turn to photograph the caterpillar, the chap mentioned that earlier someone had also spotted a Privet Hawk Moth (Sphinx ligustri) low down on a tree trunk - would we like to see if it was still there? You bet we would! So he led us to where it fortunately still was and more photos were taken. I had a hard job deciding between this beautiful moth and the caterpillar for my blip!
I also spotted this pretty spider on its web.

So I finally left Rutland for home at about 6pm - and, with a couple of stops for a drink, and another for petrol, I didn't get home until 8:45 - and didn't eat until gone 9.30! I was about 15 miles away when I suddenly noticed the sky looked stunning -a beautiful, fantastically patterned mackerel sky with the sun just starting to set. So of course, I had to stop for some shots, didn't I? lol. A gallery of them to follow with tomorrow's blip!

Just to finish off a wonderful day, when I got home I left my door open as dinner cooked - it's so warm and gorgeous out there - and when I went to dish up my food I found this little chap on my kitchen floor. I grabbed my camera quickly, intending to put him outside where he should be and try for a shot of him then - but as I went to pick him up he suddenly jumped - straight onto my arm! I had to get this shot if it - I've never had a frog on my arm before! lol