After a week of doing very little birding (a visit to the river Arrow and Arrow Valley Lake yesterday delivered only an American Mink, about five Little Egrets which looked like newly fledged birds, and a Common Tern) I met with Dave for another bash around Morton Bagot.
I suggested we start in Bannam's Wood as there was a chance of Purple Emperor, but under cloudy skies and even a few spots of rain that proved to be a poor idea. The highlight was what we took to be a Common Spotted Orchid.
Once on the patch our luck improved slightly. We had good views of one of three singing Grasshopper Warblers, and very good views of one of the singing Skylarks which should remain on site as long as the last piece of grassland is not converted to plantation.
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| Grasshopper Warbler |
We also saw our first recently fledged Sedge Warbler and the usual butterflies including our first Gatekeeper here of the year.
The nearest flash looks in good nick. It contained a few Lapwings and at least six Green Sandpipers.
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| Two of the Green Sandpipers |
I can see myself being tempted to come back here during the week.
Our outbound journey was a bit hurried because I wanted to watch the Test Match (another defeat, but it had some exciting moments) but we did notice a female Long-winged Conehead in the scrubby grassland bordering the brook.
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| Long-winged Conehead |
This impressive little cricket is now resident here, it shares the habitat with numerous Dark Bush-crickets.
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