Spernal Middle Farm Pool

Despite the title of this post I actually started as normal at Netherstead Farm, Morton Bagot. Shortly after arriving I got a phone message from John. He had seen the Marsh Harrier. I rang him back, and evidently he had had great views over the same field as I first saw it. We loitered with intent for about an hour but with no success.

However, John spent the time finding butterflies, most notably several Brown Argus. This butterfly occurs in small numbers here, as do Common Blues which are the main confusion species. Ironically Common Blues have been scarce this year. While on the subject of insects, I also saw a Broad-bodied Chaser which I think is rather belatedly my first this year.

The flashes were even quieter than yesterday, just three Green Sandpipers. Mike appeared, and we added a Lesser Whitethroat and three passing Swifts to the bird list.

I had arranged to meet Mike so that he could take me to the place he calls Spernal Middle Farm Pool, a couple of miles south of Morton Bagot, which was where he had seen the Lesser Emperor. Unfortunately our arrival coincided, initially, with a period of heavy cloud cover, and insect watching looked likely to be unsatisfactory.

The site is possibly private, although the owner appears to be tolerant of low level disturbance and has certainly given some photographers permission to visit. I was very impressed by the site, particularly when we discovered this Greenshank standing on the shoreline.

It did eventually wake up, and appeared to be one-legged as it hopped awkwardly around. Also present were a Common Sandpiper, four Green Sandpipers, and three Ravens which flew over. It began to warm up as the sun peaked through. We saw several dragonflies including Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmers and Common Darters, but there was no sign of the Lesser Emperor.

Walking back through fields of Ragwort I was very impressed by the amount of insect activity. Grasshoppers were everywhere, and we saw several Common Blue, and Small Heath butterflies like this one.

A final post-script to the day was that during the afternoon Mike returned to Morton Bagot and he too saw the Marsh Harrier. It's obviously hanging around.