As the heat has been building I have been doing a certain amount of cowering at home. This morning though I joined Dave for a bit of a route march around Morton Bagot before it got too hot.
We managed one birding surprise in the form of a Stonechat, the first of the autumn. It disappeared before I could get a better shot.
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| Stonechat |
We weren't too surprised to discover that the nearest flash has largely dried out again, and that the only waders on it were about 50 Lapwings.
There were plenty of insects about, but the heat meant that they were extremely active and hard to photograph. Too hard for me anyway. Most were ones we've seen before this year, but they did include two Silver-washed Fritilleries below Bannam's Wood, and a Southern Hawker dragonfly in the lane.
During the last few days of hunkering down at home, Lyn and I have noted several flying ant emergences. These were gratefully received by a female Blackbird still feeding a brood in the garden.
I probably should have put the moth trap out, and will do so by midweek. In the meantime, simply leaving the bathroom window has brought a few moths in, including a Svensson's Copper Underwing, which was only the second for the garden.
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| The underwing pattern confirmed this as a Svensson's Copper Underwing |
With autumn (in birding terms) just about to start, the insects will soon be taking a back seat.
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