It was a cloudy morning with barely any breeze. The continuing shortage of any significant rain means that the nearest flash continues to dry out. As a result the prospect of seeing any unusual birds remains small.
There are now three Little Egrets present, at least one a juvenile, but the Green Sandpiper counts remains on just four, and Teal achieved the same modest total. We also heard a Kingfisher for the first time for months.
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| Little Egrets (juv in the middle) |
On the walk back Dave spotted some distant Stonechats and we eventually counted four, all juveniles.
When birds are thin on the ground we inevitably start looking at insects. Our first Small Copper of the year being a particular highlight. This species is never common here, but we generally see a few at the back end of summer.
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| Small Copper |
There were plenty of little moths in the grass, including Pale Straw Pearl Udea lutealis, a species I see here every year. They are tricky to photograph as they like to perch on dangling grasses and you can usually only see the underside.
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| Udea lutealis (Pale Straw Pearl) |
Just as tricky are hoverflies. We noticed a small yellow one and established from the phone app that it was a Sphaerophoria species, I've tried to work it out subsequently and think it is a male Broad-banded Globetail Sphaerophoria taeniata...But it turns out I'm wrong and its probably Common Globetail Sphaerophoria scripta, although the corrected identification was hampered by the inadequacy of the shot.
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| Probably Common Globetail |
Thanks to Roger Morris for putting me right. I think I'll be more careful before I dabble in hoverfly identification again.
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