With another hot and sultry day in prospect I drove to meet up with Dave wondering whether the Quail was still present and whether it would attract much of a crowd.
The answer was only in the affirmative if three's a crowd. We were joined by Andy G as we approached where it had been singing last night, and right on cue it performed for us.
Earlier on, Dave had spotted a small moth in the grass and asked what it was. It turned out to be a White Plume, apparently quite common, but a lifer for me. Cheers Dave.
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| White Plume |
Although it's still early days, there are signs that the insect season in proceeding as normal on the patch. Several Meadow Browns, Large Skippers, Common Blues, and Brown Arguses had joined the usual Small Heaths. Unfortunately I had left my notebook at home, so no real attempt was made to log numbers.
We arrived at the flash field to survey what appeared to be a large patch of dry mud. But after about five minutes a little bit of Patch gold flew in. Two Curlews were circling the field, and soon dropped out of sight on the nearest flash. These were probably evidence of another failed breeding attempt somewhere in the county, but were very welcome here nonetheless.
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| The Curlews |
It turned out that there was a tiny bit of water left, and the Curlews had joined the three remaining Lapwings there. A further surprise were the pair of Shelducks which lifted up from what remains of the trashed Kingfisher pool. They seemed pretty agitated which presumably means that at least some of their brood is still alive.
A pair of Pied Wagtails were feeding their recently fledged juveniles in the same area.
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| Juvenile Pied Wagtail |
By now the heat was making life uncomfortable. Plenty of dragonflies were on the wing, including several teneral stage Ruddy Darters, but as usual the Emperors at the dragonfly pools were reluctant to settle.
It's just too hot.
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