I have to admit that I've spent most of the week hiding from the heat. My only two birding attempts concern an early morning visit to Bannam's Wood on Tuesday, where I watched Tony catch a Chiffchaff and we both had adequate views of Spotted Flycatcher, and this morning when I actually made it to Morton Bagot.
Pretty much as soon as I stepped from the car I noticed a Redstart and two Stonechats taking off from the posts near the dragonfly pond. Interestingly the Redstart was a female, so definitely not the bird seen last weekend. It was also very flighty and I struggled to get a decent shot.
My first thought was that the Stonechats were two males, but the view was brief and while I was stalking the Redstart I noticed only a female Stonechat, so I may have been mistaken.
As the weather warmed up, the birds largely disappeared into the undergrowth. The nearest flash contains no mud and few birds. I did however see a Willow Emerald damselfly dangling from the trees over the brook.
As I was leaving the site I ran into a HOEF work party led by Avery. She told me that the plan was to regenerate the Dragonfly pools by clearing half the reedbed away. The volunteers were also pruning the large bramble there. In the long term they hope to secure funding to deepen and re-wet the reedbed area.
Fair play to the volunteers who were putting in a shift under soaring temperatures.
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