Wednesday July 1

After a blisteringly hot day, the full force of which I only experienced for half an hour at lunchtime in Birmingham city centre, I was curious to know how the patch was bearing up.

So this evening I had a brisk stroll to the Flashes and back to Netherstead. As expected the pond on the way to the main pool now has a very extensive shoreline. The main pool, which is very shallow for much of its expanse, is showing an increasing amount of mud, but only three Little Ringed Plovers and a Green Sandpiper were in evidence.

Perhaps surprisingly, the two Flashes are now very different from one another. The furthest has plenty of water and no birds, while the nearest has been reduced to little more than a puddle, but hosted 24 Lapwings, and four Green Sandpipers.

Ironically my ornithological highlight this week came from my journey to work on Monday, when I heard a Siskin call as it flew high over King's Heath. This seems a strange record, but it's not unprecedented for early Siskins to turn up in good Crossbill years. The next few weeks will determine whether this will be one of them.