Sunday July 11

 I am always tempted to just ignore the bushes and head straight for the flash field at this time of the year. If there is going to be anything good it will be there, and sure enough it was.

Mind you, for "good" read "passable". The best birds were a pair of Avocets, probably the same as the ones present for most of the Spring.

Avocets

I soon got carried away and started filming one of them.

The rest of the nearest flash was much the same as last week; 63 Mallard, a Teal, a Sand Martin, and five Green Sandpipers (at least).

Green Sandpipers

The stroll back through fields of wildflowers was as pleasant as always. Both Lesser Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler were carrying food, proving that they have bred successfully again. Plenty of Chiffchaffs, and Whitethroats flicked in and out of view along the hedgerows.

All the usual butterflies and dragonflies were present, and I was pleased to see my first Four-spotted Chaser and Brown Hawkers of the year. Some discarded plastic tree guards proved attractive to numerous insects including a Meadow Grasshopper, and several Roesel's Bush-crickets. 

Meadow Grasshopper (I think)

Roesel's Bush-cricket

Back home I found a Mason Wasp in the front bedroom.

Mason Wasp Ancistrocerus ag

I was trapping moths on Friday night for the GMS. My total of 135 moths of 34 species contained none that was new for the garden, but several new for the year. The full list was as follows:

Pammene fasciana 4,    Garden Grass-veneer 35,     Phycita roborella 8,    Common Marbled Carpet 1,    Crambus pascuella 9,    Coronet 7,    Water-veneer 18,    Bird-cherry Ermine 8 (nfy),    Foxglove Pug 1 (nfy),    Green Pug 2,    Eudonia mercurella 1 (nfy),    Codling Moth 7,    Marbled Orchard Tortrix 2,    Variegated Golden Tortrix 1,    Celypha lacunana 1,    Cydia splendana 1 (nfy),    Common White Wave 1 (nfy),    Light Emerald 1,    Common Footman 3,    Blue-bordered Carpet 1 (nfy),    Heart and Dart 2,    Brown House Moth 1,    Uncertain 5,    Dark Arches 3,    Small Magpie 1,    Riband Wave 2,    Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1 (nfy),    Bramble-shoot Moth 1 (nfy),    Marbled Minor ag 1,    Ruddy Streak 1,    Large Yellow Underwing 1,    Scarce Footman 1 (nfy),    Cydia fagiglandana 2 (nfy),    Aleimma loeflingiana 1.