Wednesday August 7

Pretty much ideal weather tonight. Still, warmish, not too sunny. I started at around 18.30 when there were still plenty of Whitethroats commuting between the crops and the hedgerows. The bird of the evening, a female Redstart, was in the hedge on the east side of the pool.

For a change there were a couple of waders on the main pool, a Green Sandpiper and this Snipe.

The Flashes produced another seven Green Sandpipers, six Teal, and a calling Little Owl. Strangely, the Tufted Duck brood seems to have split. Six of them are now on the main pool with an extra female, and one remains on the original pool. The walk back produced this singing Yellowhammer in the regenerating hedge on the west side of the pool.

If I was wondering what to do at the weekend, a phone call from Mike pointed the way. He had seen a Clouded Yellow butterfly and a possible Lesser Emperor dragonfly at the weekend on pools near Spernal. Today he had relocated the dragonfly and had shown it to Peter Reeve the Warwickshire dragonfly recorder, who had concurred with his identification. Amazingly Mike has now found the only two records of this southern species to have occurred in Warwickshire.