Thursday July 28

The forecast this morning suggested it would rain by the time I was half way round the patch, so at Lyn's suggestion I got up early and was in the field by 07.15. Weathewise, the plan worked well. To start with there were a few sunny intervals and not much wind, and it ended cloudy and a bit breezier.

Getting out early has the added benefit that birds are at their most active, so I saw several mixed flocks of Tits and Warblers, and numerous finches. The main bonus came at the chat field where the adult male Whinchat had been loosely joined by two juveniles, a surprisingly early arrival.

The juvenile Whinchats

As I watched them I noticed a vehicle, which turned out to be carrying three agricultural workers, head down the track towards the pool. Here they stopped, got out, did stuff, got onto a smaller vehicle and drove to the other end of the pool, got off, did more stuff, and then returned to their original vehicle before doing something else. Exactly what they were doing I don't know, it may have had something to do with stock fences. From my point of view it meant that the pool contained no waders by the time I reached it.

The Flash field was also a bit disappointing, 40 Lapwings, four Green Sandpipers, two Teal, and 46 Greylag Geese. At one point all the Mallard jumped onto the pool in panic while four Magpies and several other corvids cackled from the hedgerow. I suspected a fox, and a little later and further on a young Fox duly put in an appearance.

The fox headed for the Pheasant pens, but as I had been asked to give them a wide berth, I walked back a different way. In the ridge field I noticed that the recently sprayed Common Ragwort now sported lots of Cinnabar Moth caterpillars.

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar

The rain was a bit late, but I would have got wet, so the early start paid off.