Sunday July 5 - back on the patch

Self-isolation over, I was able to join Dave for our traditional Sunday stroll. It was rather windy (westerly) and was sunny and cloudy in equal measure.

It felt as though I had never been away, particularly bird-wise. The same two Grasshopper Warblers  were reeling, and a Little Owl was perched in the oak-tree at the flash field. Here we counted five Teal, two Green Sandpipers, two Little Ringed Plovers, 18 Lapwings, two Black-headed Gulls, and two Sand Martins with a handful of other hirundines.

Green Sandpiper

One bird which features because of the enhanced numbers present was Goldfinch. A flock of about 50 were taking refuge in the hedge bordering the Morton Brook.

I had hoped to say a bit more about birds, but I'm afraid that stasis was the order of the day. It fell to a mammal to produce the morning's highlight. An Otter surfaced in the Kingfisher Pool, the first since my original sighting last September, and a patch tick for Dave. Last time I had photographed it and wished I'd filmed it, this time I tried to film it and wished I hadn't. It surfaced several times, but I basically managed to record two minutes of water surface ripples plus three brief head up moments. Not worth putting on the blog.

Instead its back to insects. I estimated 160 Meadow Browns, 120 Small Skippers, 30 Ringlets (Dave thought more), and a good selection of other common grassland butterflies. The hedgerows added one or two Commas, and my first Gatekeepers of the year.

Gatekeeper

Comma

As for dragonflies, the wind didn't help. But I did see Brown Hawker for the first time this year, plus a latish Four-spotted Chaser, three or four Broad-bodied Chasers, and two ovipositing Emperors.

Female Emperor ovipositing

The ringers did not appear to be on site, (unless our mid-morning start missed them completely) but I've had an email from Tony Kelly with the results of their most recent session here, on Friday June 28. Here is a summary of the 59 birds caught:

Blue Tit 11 (2)
Great Tit 6 (1)
Chiffchaff 2
Blackcap 1
Whitethroat 11 (1)
Robin 1
Dunnock 3
Greenfinch 7
Goldfinch 17 (4)

They also saw Barn Owl and Raven among other things.