Insects were off the agenda due to the rain, which just left the birds. Hmmm, to paraphrase Springwatch, "I have some very bad news to report regarding our Barn Owls"
"And unfortunately our Shrews have not faired any better"
 |
| Yuk |
The demise of the Barn Owl is particularly upsetting, and I cannot come up with any suggestion as to how it met its end. The Shrew is less surprising as you only ever see them dead. I imagine it succumbed to a fight with another Shrew. It is either a Common Shrew or a Pygmy Shrew, the relatively long hairy tail may suggest Pygmy Shrew but the corpse was in a bit of a state, so I am not certain which species I had found.
I did see a few living birds, the best being a pair of Little Grebes back on the main pool, along with a newly hatched brood of Coots. Two Grey Herons waded around before flying off, and I noticed that the Canada Goose brood has been reduced to a solitary gosling.
With the soaked grass stems causing torrents of rainwater to trickle down my wellies and into my socks I decided to check out the flash field and return home. Unfortunately the cattle in the field are completely failing in their duty to keep the grass down and as a result I couldn't see the furthest flash, while the nearest was also largely obscured but at least contained a single Lapwing and a Black-headed Gull.
Not one of my better visits.
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