31st Jul 2022: Med Gulls!

Tuesday evening there was an adult Dunlin along the western side, making use of the floating weed instead of the usual concrete shore. On Wednesday morning John had 2 Common Sandpipers.

Friday late afternoon I hadn't really expected to see much (I was going to look for inverts), but I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted a juvenile Mediterranean Gull amongst a small gathering of Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. They were obviously feeding on emerging flying ants, with birds 'flycatching' up in the air over the reservoir and surrounding area and picking them off the surface of the water too. As I was scanning though I picked up a second bird and a Yellow-legged Gull. Scanning through again a bit later I saw one bird fly off north and two birds still on the water, so at least 3 birds present. I did think I had another bird, but on reviewing photos then next day it turned out to be a juvenile Common Gull.

Two of the Med Gulls

Med Gull and the Yellow-legged Gull

Juvenile Common Gull

This morning John and I had a Whimbrel fly over going south-west, another (maybe one of the same) juvenile Med Gulls come in for several minutes, a Peregrine over and then a juvenile Little Ringed Plover appeared on the western side.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

24th Jul 2022: Small Red-eyed Damselflies

On Tuesday Mark Ribbons had a Yellow-legged Gull.

Courtesy and copyright of Mark Ribbons

There were 3 Little Ringed Plovers on Wednesday evening, an adult and 2 juveniles.

Friday morning a Redshank flew in and lingered for a little bit but was apparently gone later in the morning and a Peregrine flew over. Mike Pollard had 2 Common Terns late morning which stayed until c.5:25 when they flew off north and John had 4 Ravens fly over in the afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon there was a Common Tern and an immature (3CY?) Yellow-legged Gull flew in briefly. I also had a really good look for odonata and found we Small Red-eyed Damselflies on site (a new species here), with 9 seen along the river and 35+ at the Borrow Pit pool with pairs ovipositing there. I also saw a female Brown Argus in Reg's meadow and a Clouded Yellow up by the Borrow Pit.

Comparison of size between Red-eyed (left) and Small Red-eyed (right) 

This morning a Common Tern dropped in briefly and Clive had 2 Ravens over. John also spotted a colour ringed Black-headed Gull, which we think is EMK1 and would have been ringed in the Netherlands.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

17th Jul 2022

Another quiet week but more signs of return passage. John had Essex Skippers in the meadow on Friday.

This evening I had a juvenile Little Ringed Plover at the reservoir and at least 3 Purple Hairstreaks around the oaks along the river. I also saw a Hawker Dragonfly sp. along the river that I didn't see well enough to ID, but it was possibly a Southern Hawker as I know they are out now.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

10th Jul 2022

It's been another fairly quiet couple of weeks.  On Weds 29th there were 2 Common Sandpipers and 2 Skylarks, with one singing over the cattle field. Clive had a Common Sandpiper on Sun 3rd and Small Skippers in the meadow.

On Mon 4th Steve H and I had a walk around mainly for recording odonata, but we had a Common Tern at the reservoir and a Peregrine over. Dragons and damsels recorded were Banded and Beautiful Demoiselles, Azure and Common Blue Damsel, Blue-tailed Damsel, Red-eyed Damsel, Emperor Dragon (at the Borrow Pit pool), Black-tailed Skimmer and a Darter sp. - probably Common. We also had Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Marbled White, Red Admiral and Comma butterflies. Later in the evening I also saw a Scarlet Tiger Moth.