Tuesday 11 August - too hot

Actually, despite the title of this post, for the first hour of my visit to the patch the conditions were great. A very light easterly and humid overcast skies. The problem was that my first hour didn't start until after 09.00. By late morning the sun was out and things started to go wrong.

So lets start with the best bit. Warblers abounded at Netherstead, and I soon logged Lesser Whitethroats, Whitethroats, Blackcaps, a Willow Warbler, and Chiffchaffs. It was all very nice.

Common Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

In fact the highlight was a moth, you'll be surprised to hear. I occasionally check posts and tree trunks for moths without ever finding any. Today I checked a telegraph pole and bingo, a Knot Grass. 

Knot Grass

I do get this species occasionally in my garden trap, but I don't think I've seen one at Morton Bagot before.

Moving on, I reached the flash field, the scene of Sunday's triumph. The situation did not look good. Evaporation has removed almost all of the water in just the last two days. Apparently thunder storms are on their way, and boy does the flash need them.

Scarcely a drop left

Apart from 33 Lapwings the only waders were two Snipe, and a single Green Sandpiper.

Earlier in the morning I had seen about 80 hirundines reacting in panic without seeing the culprit, although I did later spot the Peregrine on the pylons. But now, as I left the flash field I had the annoying experience of flushing a Hobby from a dead tree. I know I shouldn't have been annoyed, a Hobby is still a Hobby, but if I'd been a little more alert to the possibilities it could have been a great photo.

At the far end of the Kingfisher Pool I crept through the bramble strewn pathway to find no sign of the Kingfisher or anything else. Fortunately I lingered, and ten minutes later it appeared, saw me, and hurried off across the field where it perched on a distant hawthorn. Thus a rather incongruous sight of a Kingfisher perched about 100 metres from the nearest water.

Kingfisher

I headed on, and no doubt it breathed a sigh of relief and resumed its intended journey to the pool.

The bird of the day was also the miss of the day. Far away on the top of a hedge stood a small bird. It suddenly took to the air and returned to its perch. Surely a Spotted Flycatcher. The problem was, when I said far away I wasn't kidding.

Spot the spot fly?

I tried my scope, and got on it again. It looked even better, but it was still a silhouette. I decided to head to the ridge field to try to get closer and have the sun behind me. 

I never saw it again. The one that got away.

By now I thought sun stroke was a very real possibility so I staggered back to the car without really looking at anything else.