Rather a cloudy start with a few showers of fine rain. As I was waiting for Dave to arrive I was surprised to hear, above the fizzing of the overhead pylons, the distant reeling of a Grasshopper Warbler. It was still here. I worked out it was singing from the field or hedge at the extreme south of the patch.
Dave and I approached and spent about an hour trying to see it. We eventually worked out exactly where it was.
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Grass hopper Warbler |
It was in this grass somewhere, but eventually we had to settle for extremely brief views and no photo.
As the weather improved we set off around the rest of the patch. A darter which showed well proved to be our first male Ruddy Darter of the year.
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| Ruddy Darter |
The pinched-in shape of its abdomen is one of the best features of this dragonfly. Our bird list was pretty moderate. The Redstart was calling, but we couldn't see it, and two Little Ringed Plovers were the only waders apart from a few Lapwings on the flash.
The grass in the flash field has been cut, so the furthest flash is now visible, but contained only a few Mallards and two or three Teal.
So back to the insects. I got shots of a few common ones, and also a Flowering-rush.
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| Common Blue Damselfly |
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| Flowering-rush |
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| Gatekeeper (Hedge Brown) |
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| A rather pale Narrow-bordered Five Spot Burnet |
So a little bit quiet apart from the continued presence of the Grasshopper Warbler, now in its third week.
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