Sunday July 3 - A bird in the hand

Dave joined me as usual for a stroll around Morton Bagot. The weather was bright and sunny to begin with, although it clouded over later, and there was a light south-westerly. Shortly after arriving we met Tony who had spent the morning ringing on site, and had had a reasonably productive morning.

For our part we divided our time between estimating butterfly numbers and looking out for birds. The only new butterfly for the year was Gatekeeper, and we logged just three of them.

Gatekeeper

 The top three butterflies by number were 150 Ringlets, 110 Meadow Browns, and 60 Marbled Whites, and we also managed low double-figure counts of Large and Small Skippers plus smaller numbers of six other species. The best habitat for these insects were the thick layer of brambles and thistles protecting the hedges, and the large banks of Knapweed within the fields.

If only more of the countryside was like this

We also located two Burnet moths, one of which was likely to be a Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet. The other disappeared before it could be studied.

Presumed Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet

The nearest flash is no longer a sea of mud. The farmer has flooded it, and it is back to being a shallow pool with a narrow fringe of dry mud. At least 22 Lapwings, and two Green Sandpipers were visible.

At this time of year there are plenty of small birds in the hedgerows, but seeing them is a bit challenging. A pair of Lesser Whitethroats obviously had young, and were extremely agitated by our presence. I got one pretty ropey shot of one of the birds before leaving them in peace.

Lesser Whitethroat

So that's the bird in the bush. What we needed was a few birds in the hand. Tony kindly supplied his photos to remedy the situation.

Female Lesser Whitethroat (with brood patch)

Common Whitethroat

Blackcap

Returning to insects, we saw several dragonflies including Broad-bodied Chaser, Emperors, and a Ruddy Darter. A careful sweep of the dragonfly pools also brought us our first Small Red-eyed Damselflies of the year.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

No longer the rarity they once were.

So nothing especially unusual today, but the patch remains a wonderful place.