Wednesday June 26

 After a fruitless twitch to Haselor Scrapes yesterday afternoon  (early morning Dunlin and Redshank), I was keen to see whether Morton Bagot had attracted any waders.

By the time I got there the sun was beating down but there still seemed to be a reasonable amount of water and wet mud. I quickly realised that a pair of Avocets had reappeared after a month long absence, but couldn't see much else. The reason for this became apparent when I reached the Kingfisher Pool. A flock of Green Sandpipers was resting on the tiny island there. 

Six of the nine Green Sandpipers

The total of Green Sandpipers was at least nine. I was also pleased to see that there were actually five advanced juvenile Lapwings on the nearest flash, comprising a brood of two and a brood of three.

A walk up into Bannams Wood produced the usual breeding birds, including Spotted Flycatcher, Marsh Tit, and Red Kite. Most were only heard, but one or two recently fledged juveniles were too naive to hide.

Baby Song Thrush on the path

Recently fledged Wren

It was arguably too warm for comfortable insect watching, but I did notice a Brimstone Moth, which seems to be my first here, and several Marbled White butterflies.

Marbled White

The really good news is that the Blogspot glitch which was preventing me from uploading photos has been resolved, so I'm up and running once more.

Sunday June 23 - Mostly Morton Bagot

 I was hoping for a full morning's birding now that most of the decorating is completed, but unfortunately I was only able to spare a couple of hours. This meant parking at the church, where I met up with Dave, and making a quick dash to the flash.

The good news is that there is now lots of exposed mud.

Optimum condition for wader passage (Just a shame its still June)

Even better, was the discovery of four well-grown juvenile Lapwings being protected from Carrion Crow attack by eight vociferous adults. I assume these have been present in the grass surrounding the flash for the last few weeks, only emerging once the water level had dropped. We felt that two were slightly older than the other two, so possibly two broods.

Two juvenile Lapwings, and if you search the shot carefully a Green Sandpiper

Also present, but remarkably hard to spot, was at least four Green Sandpipers. These will be adults from the Scandinavia pausing to moult before continuing their journey to Africa. We later flushed two off the Kingfisher Pool and another two of the HOEF scrapes. Also new arrivals since my last visit were five adult Teal, while a single Little Egret remains in residence.

As we were pushed for time, the only other noteworthy bird was a singing Grasshopper Warbler, but I've heard that John Chidwick saw two juvenile Stonechats yesterday.

New insects included a few Marbled Whites and a Ruddy Darter. Maybe next time I'll have the time to try photographing them.

On Friday night I put my moth trap out for only the second time this month. This brought me 39 moths of 19 species, 11 of which were new for the year. The most unusual was a White Ermine (first since 2020), and the most spectacular an Elephant Hawk-moth.

White Ermine

Elephant Hawk-moth

Sunday June 16 - It's a time of year thing

 I don't think I've ever allowed this amount of time to elapse between posts, but finally I think I've seen enough to make it worth putting pen to paper, as it were.

The problem is the month, mostly. June is hard work for little reward if you're a birder. Pretty much everything is getting on with breeding, so unexpected sightings are, well, very unexpected. To compound the issue, this June has been unusually cool and wet, so insects are in short supply.

Also we're decorating. Nightmare!

Fortunately friends have been a little more active, and this week's prize goes to Tony. Earlier this week he caught the Redditch Ringing Group's first ever Cuckoo near the Purity Brewery at Middle Spernal. It was a fully-winged juvenile, maybe the offspring of one of the Cuckoos which made a brief appearance here in spring.

Juvenile Cuckoo - per Tony K

Meanwhile, at Morton Bagot the sum total of the last three visits has been a Barn Owl, and two or three pairs of Lesser Whitethroats confirmed to be breeding, while the juvenile Stonechat count has increased to three although they all seem to be from the same brood.

Juvenile Stonechat

These Stonechats seem to have moved from the ridge field to the hedge bordering scrapes, and have thus eluded the ringers so far. Gallingly we couldn't see them at all today.

One bird that I've not seen this year, only heard, was Grasshopper Warbler. Dennis and Marion visited on Thursday and let me know they had heard and seen one. I came down on a blustery Friday and dipped out. But yesterday Tony caught one, and today another. This late burst of song is quite typical for Grasshopper Warblers which have enjoyed a successful breeding season.

Today's Grasshopper Warbler

Dave and I heard it singing, but we were unable to see it.

The first returning wader was a Green Sandpiper which Dennis and Marion heard near the flash field on Thursday. There is a little mud there now, but the obscuring vegetation seems worse than ever. At least two or three Lapwings are now in residence.

A small number of newly emerged butterflies are now flying. This morning I saw my first Ringlets of the year.

As for moths, there seem to be more Yellow Shell in the grass around the patch than normal, but otherwise its a similar story to that of the butterflies.

Yellow Shell

I've only put my garden trap out once this month, catching 21 moths of 13 species. Several were new for the year, the best being my first Common Swift since 2019, and my third ever Varied Coronet.

Common Swift

Varied Coronet

Incidentally the other type of Common Swift, i.e. the bird of that name, has been increasing a little in numbers at Morton Bagot, but so far the best count is still in the low teens.

Hopefully the latter half of June will be good enough to encourage a resumption of normal service.

Tuesday June 4 - Spernall STW area

 I decided to have a walk along the Arrow near Spernal STW today. It was cloudier than would have been ideal, and the birds seen were fewer than I would have liked. I saw no ducks (other than Mallard) and no Cetti's Warblers. Gaining access to within the treatment works may have helped. Fortunately Tony and the ringing team are allowed to ring there, and on Sunday they caught two Cetti's Warblers, one of which was a new bird.

Cetti's Warbler - Tony Kelly

They also caught 14 Reed Warblers, two Sedge Warblers, a Lesser Whitethroat and a number of other common species.

This morning I heard a Sedge Warbler singing from within the compound, and a scruffy Lesser Whitethroat which popped up onto a bare branch while I was changing my footwear in the boot of my car. 

Lesser Whitethroat showing badly

Pied Wagtail showing well

The only other birds of note were a Little Egret, and a Kingfisher.

Despite the cloudy weather it was worth peering into the hedgerows to look at insects. I was pleased to see a substantial lek of displaying Yellow-banded Longhorn Moths which danced up and down constantly before one finally landed and allowed me the chance to confirm what it was.

Yellow-banded Longhorn Nemophora degeerella

This is one of the commonest species of longhorn moths around here, but it was nice to add it to the year list.

Also new were quite a number of White-legged Damselflies, a classic river bank species.

White-legged Damselfly

It started to drizzle and I found myself looking at Snails. It was probably time to go home.

Mind you, two new Snails have gone onto to my Snail list (I haven't really got a Snail lifelist....yet).

Amber Snail Succinea putris

Copse Snail Arianta arbustorum

Sunday June 2 - Morton Bagot

 The weather is now warm and sunny with gentle breezes from the west or occasionally the north, or as a birder might put it, bloody hopeless. Chuck June into the mix and its tempting to sit at home and do nothing.

But then you have to remember previous Junes when Red-backed Shrikes, Melodious Warblers and their ilk have turned up. You just never know.

So I went to Morton Bagot determined to ignore insects and look only at birds. You can probably guess how that went. But it was a solid birdy start. A male Stonechat was visible on the top of a willow before I'd even left the car, and I was determined to try and get some shots of the Reed Warblers now inhabiting the reeds at the dragonfly pools.

Reed Warbler wearing its bling with pride.

One of them had been ringed, and it seems likely that this would be a bird Tony and Leigh ringed last year.

The second bird appeared unringed

Pleased with my start I paused to watch a brood of recently fledged Chiffchaffs before continuing towards the scrapes. Here, the water level in some scrapes remains high, allowing no mud for any potential waders, while others had virtually dried up. A Little Egret took flight as I appeared. 

A Lesser Black-backed Gull squawked, always a good sign, and I looked up to see it was mobbing a Sparrowhawk. Scanning across towards Bannams I noticed that a Red Kite was getting similar treatment from a Carrion Crow, and at least four Buzzards were also circling. Perhaps it would be a good raptor day?

A short while later my optimism proved well founded as I spotted a Hobby flying towards me. For once I had the opportunity to get a photo as it powered past at speed.

The Hobby

It was now officially a good day. Right on cue a Kestrel turned up, adding one more bird of prey to the mix.

Unfortunately the flash field failed to rise to the occasion as usual, but I did hear a couple of Lesser Whitethroats giving their rattling song, having been largely silent for a few weeks.

Insects soon captured my attention, and I just couldn't help snapping my first Large Skipper of the year, followed by a newly emerged Black-tailed Skimmer looking nothing like the classic blue males of mid summer.

Large Skipper

Black-tailed Skimmer

I met Sam MacVie surveying butterflies for HOEF, and so tagged along with him for a while. The numbers seem surprisingly low at the moment, but until today it had usually been overcast and a little cool. That may account for it.

We still saw a few day-flying moths, including Burnet Companion, Mother Shipton and my first Straw Dot of the year.

Burnet Companion

Straw Dot

After we went our separate ways I spotted the two juvenile Stonechats again in the ridge field before returning home.