Tuesday, 15 July 2014

A heavy shower started up just as I left the house this morning, but it soon passed and the day slowly brightened up to become sunny and warm.

I visited most parts of my patch today, finding a total of 46 bird species, which is ok for a July visit, but as yesterday, nothing much of note was amongst them. Five GREYLAG GEESE were in the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley early on, a sign that Autumn draws ever nearer, as is the passage of SWIFTS and HOUSE MARTINS that were seen in small numbers during my sky watch, which also brought me a GREY HERON, three Gull species - BLACK HEADED, HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED, plus a BUZZARD that was noisily seen of by 3 of the Greenhouse KESTREL family.

Only SWALLOW, BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT and CHIFFCHAFF turned out for the summer migrant species, i've not been able to relocate the Spotted Flycatcher family again as yet. Once again the Scrubby Woods and the Wet Woods were good for GOLDCREST, COAL TIT, TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH, JAY, GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER as well as STOCK DOVE, plus all the common stuff, but no Nuthatch or Long Tailed Tit today. Just one MALLARD was seen on the lakes, along with the MUTE SWAN and COOT families, plus a few MOORHENS of different ages.

I spent some time chasing a pair of Brown Hawker Dragonflies around, but the warmer it got the less they looked likely to settle down somewhere to be photographed, so I had to be content with this Peacock Butterfly, of which there were plenty around in the Scrubby Wood Brambles.

Peacock Butterfly

The only other photo's I took today were of the Ruddy Darters that are to be found over at the run off pool at the Ashes Lane Field, only two were seen, no doubt due to the drying pool and the massacre of all the vegetation around it  :-(

Ruddy Darter

Ruddy Darter - Immature

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