Friday August 2

A very warm and sunny morning with a very light northerly breeze. I am still waiting to hear whether my insurance claim will fund a new pair of bins, and in the meantime I am having to rely on my old pair of 30 year old Zeiss. Its like looking through a mist.

Perhaps because of this, three Partridges flew off looking worryingly like Greys. There haven't been any here for about five years, and inevitably I couldn't relocate them. Later on I saw a possible Purple Hairstreak, but that too disappeared. It was turning into one of those mornings.

At the flash field I confirmed what I had suspected, that Little Owls have bred successfully.

Juvenile Little Owl

A single Willow Warbler sang, while waders were represented by seven Green Sandpipers and 31 Lapwings. A couple of Teal were present while the furthest flash was smothered by 90 Greylag Geese.

On the walk back I heard a Kingfisher, and finally saw a Common Darter dragonfly. Ruddy Darter is by far the commonest Darter here.

Common Darter

All a bit quiet really.