Sunday June 7

The morning began fairly bright but within a couple of hours it was back to cloud and drizzle. At least I managed to get my camera out before the rain arrived.

Common Whitethroat - adult

At least two pairs of Whitethroats were feeding recently fledged juveniles, which meant I could finally feature some birds on this blog.

Common Whitethroat - juvenile

The ringers are back. We met Tony and Leigh just as they were preparing to pack up. I was given the opportunity to photograph a Blue Tit in the hand, but stupidly left the camera on auto mode so ended up with a slightly fuzzy Blue Tit in the foreground and a perfectly focussed Tony in the distance. The ringers had gripped us off with a Barn Owl earlier on.

I recently received a Caterpillar Guide as a birthday present, and had the opportunity to use it this morning when we found a ball of Peacock caterpillars on nettles.

Peacock caterpillars

In truth I knew what they were anyway.

Back to birds, House Martins were taking advantage of the recent wet weather by collecting mud for their nests. We reached the flash field where the Shelducks and Little Ringed Plovers were still present, and a pair of Tufted Ducks were on the Kingfisher Pool.

House Martins

Little Ringed Plovers

Tufted Ducks

Finally, with few butterflies or dragonflies on the wing, we were diverted by a single spike of a Pyramidal Orchid, a very nice thing to see.

Pyramidal Orchid

Tony has kindly supplied the ringing data, including retraps, for today's session (retraps in brackets):

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Blue Tit 23 (3)
Great Tit 8 (2)
Sedge Warbler 2 (1)
Blackcap 1
Whitethroat 2
Robin 2
Dunnock 2
Greenfinch 2
Goldfinch 11 (1)

Many of the resident species caught were juveniles, but all of their warblers were adults.

Dave and I noticed a ringed Sedge Warbler in the reed-bed, presumably one of the two birds caught today.