It's always nice, indeed a relief, when you take someone around the patch and are able to see something good. It is probably over a year since both Richards joined me, and we certainly picked the weather, it being a beautifully sunny morning.
My friends are excellent companions in that they are happy to walk around and see a few Hares.
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| Brown Hare |
So when a Fox appeared in the pool field and starts hunting the Brown Hares, they are left very happy indeed.
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| Fox |
The hares definitely had the measure of the fox which never came close to a successful kill. It eventually got wind of us and ran off.
Then things got really good. A pair of
Hobbies appeared and after initially simply circling, they started to treat us to what can only describe as horseplay as one occasionally picked up speed and dived spectacularly towards the other.
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| Hobby |
I even noticed a white butterfly fluttering dangerously close to them, and was not too surprised when the nearest bird plucked it out of the sky and started consuming it on the wing.
At the flash field all was pretty much the same, a drake Gadwall and a pair of Shelducks standing out. The highlight though was finding that the two broods of Lapwings were still intact, with a total of five chicks, three of which were large enough to be practicing a bit of wing flapping.
The stroll back produced plenty of interesting insects.
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| Hoverfly which mimics a bee, Volucella bombylans |
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| possibly Grey-patched Mining Bee |
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| Beautiful Demoiselle - male |
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| Beautiful Demoiselle - female |
We counted about six Beautiful Demoiselles without trying especially hard, probably the best emergence I have seen here. We also saw several Large Red Damselflies and an Azure Damselfly.
And the hawthorn hedgerows just look fantastic at this time of the year. You can't beat it.
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