Sunday June 14 - waders starting to return

A mostly cloudy morning with sunny intervals and a light south-easterly.

For once it was a relief to get away from Netherstead as one of the residents was making an awful racket in his garden (possibly hedge-trimming). Once we reached the beehives, things quietened down and we were able to hear a Grasshopper Warbler in the chat field. Our efforts to see it again went unrewarded.

One or two new butterflies have emerged, including Marbled White and Ringlet, but we were again struck by how many Small Tortoiseshells were on the wing. Somewhere between 10 and 20 is more than we have seen here for years.

The flash field was to provide the main ornithological interest. A Little Owl glared at me from the foot of its tree before disappearing into the foliage. The flashes themselves were slow to reveal what was present, but we eventually counted five Teal, two Little Ringed Plovers, two returning Green Sandpipers, and a post-breeding Redshank. Its starting to feel like the place is getting back to its old self.

Little Ringed Plover

Green Sandpiper

Redshank

Teal

The remainder of the visit was fairly steady, as you might expect in the middle of June. We did however see a Comma, a species I have struggled to see anywhere this year, and also a couple of juvenile Mistle Thrushes. There is probably only one breeding pair of these on the patch, so it was good to see that they had been successful.

Comma

Juv Mistle Thrush and Goldfinch

Midsummer is the time when I can't help looking at the flowering heads of Umbellifers and Meadow Sweet because they are always jam-packed with insects I can't identify. Today one contained a longhorn beetle I recognised (but couldn't remember the name of) which was too spectacular to leave out of the blog.

Rutpela maculata

My eye was drawn to the big one, Rutpela maculata so I didn't even notice the smaller longhorn beetle next to it. A brief bit of research has led me to the conclusion that the photograph is not clear enough to be certain of its species.

One other thing to mention is a singing Reed Warbler, one of four on site, singing from scrub at the edge of Stapenhill Wood. Any thoughts of Marsh or Blyth's Reed Warbler were quelled by the fact it sounded like a completely typical Reed Warbler, but one singing in the wrong habitat.

Its nice to feel that birding is back to normal. I hope its not a passing illusion.