Wednesday July 23

This evening it was warm and sultry. Perfect for biting flies! I met fellow sufferer Mike Lane as he was lugging away half a ton of camera equipment including his hide. At least he'd seen some birds. He mentioned a Cuckoo (presumably juvenile) and also that up to three Little Egrets have been visiting College Lake in Studley lately.

I continued to the flash where things seemed pretty stable. I saw four Green Sandpipers, two Shelducks, 65 Lapwings and five Teal.

Juvenile Shelduck

Lapwings and Shelducks

The highlight of the evening was not the invisible Redstart (still calling) nor the visible Chiffchaff (also calling) but was my first Southern Hawker dragonfly of the year which was attracted to the flies buzzing around my suffering form. I was cheering it on, feeling like a human bird table, well dragonfly table strictly speaking.