Another sunny morning, of course, saw myself and Dave undaunted by our recent quiet visits, giving the patch another go. We're now at the right end of August and the birds started to respond.
To begin with we found the first of an eventual three Whinchats. That one was in the hedge bordering the scrape field (now lacking water entirely), and we soon found it was accompanied by several Whitethroats, a Stonechat, and best of all a Redstart.
Before we left the field, Dave spotted a Clouded Yellow.
We then switched our attention to the flash field, scoping the furthest flash from the ridge and looking through the largest gap in the trees. From here Dave spotted a Goosander unexpectedly swimming around among the distant Mallard. This was the first here this year, and a species which is scarce at Morton Bagot at the best of times. Unfortunately it proved impossible to photograph, as did a Badger which trotted across the field before disappearing into the cover of the long grass.
We moved down to the hedge and got into the best spot to watch the nearest flash. Initially it looked like a bit of a waste of time, but as luck would have it the cattle in the field decided to approach and inadvertently flushed 13 Snipe, 24 Teal, and four Green Sandpipers all virtually invisible until they were suddenly flying around in panic.
Little else was seen, aside from two or three more Stonechats at Netherstead.
Briefly, the garden moth trap on Friday night produced a decent count of 86 moths of 29 species for the GMS. Best in terms of our garden was the ridiculously tiny Apple Leaf-miner (only the third I have noticed), two Beet Moths (the first since they crashed onto the seen in 2022), and a Small Blood-vein (first for a couple of years). My favourite though were a couple of Chinese Characters, a moth which hides in plain sight by looking like a bird-dropping.
Weird or what?
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